vteu 


THE    CAPTURE    OF   JEFFERSON    DAVIS. 

AN    EXTRACT   FROM    A   NARRATIVE,    WRITTEN   NOT    FOR   PUBLICATION,    BUT    FOR   THE 
ENTERTAINMENT   OF    MY    CHILDREN    ONLY. 


In  anticipation  of  the  capture  of  Richmond, 
the  President  had  decided  to  remove  his 
family  to  a  place  of  probable  security.  He 
desired,  however,  to  keep  them  as  near  as 
might  be  to  the  position  General  Lee  intended 
to  occupy  when  obliged  to  withdraw  from 
"\the  lines  around  Richmond  and  Petersburg. 
Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  was  selected  for 
the  purpose ;  and  I  was  requested  to  accom- 
pany Mrs.  Davis  and  the  children  on  their 
journey. 

We  started  from  Richmond  in  the  evening 
of  the  Friday  before  the  city  was  evacuated. 
The  President  accompanied  us  to  the  cars ; 
and  after  the  ladies  had  taken  their  seats,  but 
while  we  were  still  at  the  station  of  the  Dan- 
ville railroad,  awaiting  the  signal  for  the  train 
to  move,  he  walked  a  short  distance  aside 
with  me,  and  gave  his  final  instructions  in 
nearly  or  quite  these  words  : 

"  My  latest  information  from  General  Lee 
is,  that  Sheridan  has  been  ordered  to  move 
with  his  cavalry  to  our  right  flank  and  to 
tear  up  the  railroad ;  he  is  to  remain  there> 
destroying  as  much  of  the  railroad  as  he  can, 
until  driven  off  by  Hampton  or  by  the  lack  of 
supplies ;  he  is  then  to  rejoin  Grant  in  front  of 
Petersburg  if  possible ;  otherwise,  to  go  to 
Sherman  in  North  Carolina.  After  establish- 
ing Mrs.  Davis  at  Charlotte,  you  will  return 
to  Richmond  as  soon  as  you  can." 

I  may  here  remark  that,  when  a  prisoner 
in  Washington,  in  the  following  July,  I  one 
day  got  possession  of  a  piece  of  a  newspaper 
containing  a  part  of  the  report,  made  by 
General  Sheridan,  of  the  operations  under 
his  command  known  as  the  "  Battle  of  Five 
Forks."  I  remember  the  impression  it  gave 
me  of  the  accuracy  and  freshness  of  Gen- 
eral Lee's  intelligence  from  General-  Grant's 
head-quarters,  when  I  read,  that  day  in 
prison,  Sheridan's  own  statement  showing 
that  his  orders  were  to  move  with  cavalry 
only,  to  make  a  raid  on  the  railroad  on 
General  Lee's  right  flank,  and,  when  driven 
off,  to  return  to  Petersburg  if  he  could,  other- 
wise to  join  Sherman ;  and  that  it  was  during 
the  night,  when  he  was  about  to  move  with 
the  cavalry  only,  that  General  Grant  notified 
him  of  a  change  of  plan,  afterward  giving 
him  the  corps  of  infantry  with  which  the 
battle  was  actually  fought. 


Bidding  good-bye  to  the  President,  we  got 
away  from  Richmond  about  ten  o'clock.  It  was 
a  special  train.  Our  party  consisted  of  Mrs. 
Davis,  Miss  Howell  (her  sister),  the  four  chil- 
dren, Ellen  (the  mulatto  maid-servant),  and 
James  Jones  (the  mulatto  coachman).  VVith 
us  were  also  the  daughters  of  Mr.  Tren- 
holm,  the  Secretaiy  of  the  Treasury,  on  their 
way  to  South  Carolina,  under  the  escort  of 
midshipman  James  M.  Morgan.  That  young 
gentleman  was  then  engaged  to  Miss  Tren- 
holm,  and  afterward  married  her.  There  were 
no  other  passengers,  and  the  train  consisted 
of  only  two  or  three  cars.  In  one  of  them, 
the  coachman  had  the  two  carriage  horses 
recently  presented  to  Mrs.  Davis  by  several 
gentlemen  of  Richmond.  She  had  owned  and 
used  them  for  several  years ;  but  during  the 
preceding  winter  the  President's  household 
had  felt  the  pressure  of  the  "hard  times"  even 
more  than  before;  he  had  sold  all  his  own 
horses  except  the  one  he  usually  rode;  and, 
being  in  need  of  the  money  these  would 
fetch,  Mrs.  Davis  had,  some  time  afterward, 
sold  them  also  through  a  dealer.  The  after- 
noon of  the  sale,  however,  they  were  returned 
to  the  stable  with  a  kind  letter  to  her  from  Mr. 
James  Lyons  and  a  number  of  other  promi- 
nent gentlemen,  the  purchasers,  begging  her 
to  accept  the  horses  as  a  gift  in  token  of 
their  regard.  The  price  they  had  paid  for  the 
pair  was,  I  think,  twelve  thousand  dollars — a 
sum  which  dwindles  somewhat  when  stated 
to  have  been  in  Confederate  currency  (worth, 
at  that  time,  only  some  fifty  for  one  in  gold), 
and  representing  about  two  hundred  and  forty 
dollars  in  good  money. 

It  illustrates  the  then  condition  of  the  rail- 
ways and  means  of  transportation  in  the  Con- 
federate States,  that,  after  proceeding  twelve 
or  fifteen  miles,  our  locomotive  proved  un- 
able to  take  us  over  a  slight  up-grade.  We 
came  to  a  dead  halt,  and  remained  there  all 
night.  The  next  day  was  well  advanced  when 
Burksville  Junction  was  reached;  and  I  there 
telegraphed  to  the  President  the  accounts 
received  from  the  battle  between  Sheridan 
and  Pickett. 

It  was  Sunday  morning  before  we  arrived 
at  Danville.  While  preparations  were  making 
there  to  send  on  our  train  toward  Charlotte, 
Morgan  and  I  took  a  walk  through  the  town 
and  made  a  visit  to  the  residence  of  Maior 


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THE    CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


131 


Sutherlin,  the  most  conspicuous  house  in 
Danville.  The  train  got  off  again  by  midday, 
but  did  not  reach  Charlotte  until  Tuesday. 
At  Charlotte,  we  were  courteously  entertained 
for  a  day  or  two  by  Mr.  Weil,  an  Israelite,  a 
merchant  of  the  town. 

Communication  had  been  so  interrupted 
that  we  did  not  hear  of  the  evacuation  of 
Richmond  until  Mrs.  Davis  received  a  tele- 
gram, on  Wednesday,  from  the  President  at 
Danville,  merely  announcing  that  he  was 
there. 

As  soon  as  I  could  do  so,  and  when  we 
had  comfortably  established  Mrs.  Davis  and 
her  family  in  the  house  provided  for  them,  I 
returned  to  Danville  and  joined  the  President. 
With  several  members  of  his  cabinet,  he  was 
a  guest  at  Major  Sutherlin's  house,  where  I 
arrived  late  in  the  evening,  and  spent  the 
night. 

A  report  coming  in  that  the  enemy's  cavalry 
was  approaching  from  the  westward,  the 
hills  around  Danville,  where  earth-works  had 
already  been  thrown  up,  were  manned  by 
the  officers  and  men  that  had  constituted  the 
Confederate  navy  in  and  near  Richmond ; 
and  command  of  the  force  was  given  to 
Admiral  Semmes  (of  the  Alabatna),  who  was 
made  a  brigadier-general  for  the  nonce. 

The  several  bureaus  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, and  perhaps  several  of  the  other  depart- 
ments, had  arranged  quarters  for  themselves 
in  the  town,  and  were  organizing  for  regular 
work.  A  separate  and  commodious  house  had 
been  provided  (I  think  by  the  town  authorities) 
as  a  head-quarters  for  the  President  and  his 
personal  staff;  and  Mr.  M.  H.  Clark,  our 
chief  clerk,  had  already  established  himself 
there  and  was  getting  things  in  order.  It  was 
only  the  next  afternoon,  however,  after  my 
return  to  Danville,  that  the  President  re- 
ceived a  communication  informing  him  of 
the  surrender  by  General  Lee  of  the  army 
of  Northern  Virginia,  and  gave  orders  for  an 
immediate  withdrawal  into  North  Carolina. 
Under  his  directions,  we  set  to  work  at  once 
to  arrange  for  a  railway  train  to  convey  the 
more  important  officers  of  the  Government 
asd  such  others  as  could  be  got  aboard,  with 
our  luggage  and  as  much  material  as  it  was 
desired  to  carry  along,  including  the  boxes 
of  papers  that  had  belonged  to  the  executive 
office  in  Richmond.  With  the  cooperation  of 
the  officers  of  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ment, the  train  was,  with  difficulty,  got  ready; 
and  the  guards  I  placed  upon  it  excluded 
all  persons  and  material  not  specially  author- 
ized by  me  to  go  aboard.  Of  course,  a  multi- 
tude was  anxious  to  embark,  and  the  guards 
were  kept  busy  in  repelling  them. 

As  I  stood  in  front  of  our  head-quarters, 


superintending  the  removal  of  luggage  and 
boxes  to  the  train,  two  officers  rode  up, 
their  horses  spattered  with  mud,  and  asked 
for  the  news.  I  told  them  of  the  surrender 
of  General  Lee's  army,  and  inquired  who 
they  were  and  whence  they  had  come.  They 
had  ridden  from  Richmond,  and  were  just 
arrived,  having  made  a  wide  detour  from 
the  direct  road,  to  avoid  capture  by  the 
enemy.  One  of  them  was  a  colonel  from 
Tennessee.  He  expressed  great  eagerness  to 
get  on  as  rapidly  as  possible  toward  home. 
I  remarked  upon  the  freshness  and  spirit  of 
his  horse,  and  asked  where  he  had  got  so 
good  a  steed.  He  said  the  horse  belonged 
to  a  gentleman  in  Richmond,  whose  name 
he  did  not  recollect,  but  who  had  asked 
him,  in  the  confusion  of  the  evacuation,  to 
take  the  horse  out  to  his  son — then  serving 
on  General  E well's  staff.  He  added  that,  as 
General  Ewell  and  staff  had  all  been  captured, 
he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  the  horse, 
and  should  be  glad  to  turn  him  over  to 
some  responsible  person — exacting  an  obli- 
gation to  account  to  the  owner.  I  said  I 
should  be  glad  to  have  the  horse,  and  would 
cheerfully  assume  all  responsibilities.  The 
colonel  rode  off,  but  returned  in  a  short 
time.  He  had  tried  to  get  on  the  railway 
train,  but  found  he  couldn't  do  it  without  an 
order  from  me ;  whereby  he  remarked  that, 
if  I  would  furnish  such  an  order,  he  would 
accept  my  proposition  about  the  horse. 
The  arrangement  was  made  immediately, 
and  the  colonel  became  a  passenger  on 
the  train,  which  also  conveyed  my  horse, 
with  others  belonging  to  the  President  and 
his  staff. 

That  horse  did  me  noble  service,  and  I  be- 
came very  much  attached  to  him.  Further 
on,  I  shall  tell  the  sad  fate  that  befell  him. 
Long  afterward,  I  ascertained  the  owner 
was  Mr.  Edmond,  of  Richmond,  with  whom 
I  had  a  conversation  on  the  subject,  when  I 
was  there  attending  upon  the  proceedings  in 
the  United  States  Court  for  the  release  of 
Mr.  Davis  from  prison  upon  bail.  I  related 
the  adventures  of  his  steed,  and  offered  to 
pay  for  him ;  but  Mr.  Edmond  promptly 
and  very  generously  said  he  could  not  think 
of  taking  pay  for  the  horse ;  that  the  loss 
was  but  an  incident  of  the  loss  of  every- 
thing else  we  had  all  suffered  in  the  result 
of  the  war,  and  that  his  inquiries  had  been 
made  only  because  the  animal  was  a  great 
pet  with  the  children,  and  they  were  all 
anxious  to  know  his  fate. 

Among  the  people  who  besieged  me  for 

permits  to  enter  the  train  was  General  R , 

with  several  daughters  and  one  or  more 
of  his  staff  officers.    He  had  been  on  duty 


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132 


THE    CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


in  the  "  torpedo  bureau,"  and  had  with  him 
what  he  considered  a  valuable  collection 
of  fuses  and  other  explosives.  I  distrusted 
such  luggage  as  that,  though  the  General 
confidently  asserted  it  was  quite  harmless. 
I  told  him  he  couldn't  go  with  us  —  there 
was  no  room  for  him.  He  succeeded  at 
last,  however,  in  getting  access  to  the  Presi- 
dent, who  had  served  with  him,  long  years 
before,  in  the  army ;  in  kindness  to  an  old 
friend,  Mr.  Davis  finally  said  I  had  better 
make  room  for  the  General,  and  he  himself 
took  one  of  the  daughters  to  share  his  own 
seat.  That  young  lady  was  of  a  loquacity 
irrepressible ;  she  plied  her  neighbor  dili- 
gently—  about  the  weather,  and  upon  every 
other  topic  of  common  interest — asking  him, 
too,  a  thousand  trivial  questions.  The  train 
could  not  yet  be  got  to  move ;  the  fires  in  the 
locomotive  wouldn't  burn  well,  or  some  other 
difficulty  delayed  us  ;  and  there  we  all  were, 
in  our  seats,  crowded  together,  waiting  to 
be  off,  full  of  gloom  at  the  situation,-  won- 
dering what  would  happen  next,  and  all  as 
silent  as  mourners  at  a  funeral ;  all  except, 
indeed,  the  General's  daughter,  who  prattled 
on  in  a  voice  everybody  heard.  She  seemed 
quite  unconscious  of  the  impatience  Mr.  Davis 
evidently  to  everybody  else,  felt  for  her  and 
her  conversation.  In  the  midst  of  it  all,  a  sharp 
explosion  occurred  very  near  the  President, 
and  a  young  man  was  seen  to  bounce  into 
the  air,  clapping  both  hands  to  the  seat  of  his 
trowsers.  We  all  sprang  to  our  feet  in  alarm, 
but    presently   found    that  it    was   only  an 

officer  of  General  R 's  staff,  who  had  sat 

down  rather  abruptly  upon  the  flat  top  of  a 
stove  (still  standing  in  the  car,  but  without 
a  fire),  and  that  the  explosion  was  made  by 
one  of  the  torpedo  appliances  he  was  carrying 
in  his  coat-tail  pocket. 

Among  the  servants  at  the  President's 
house  in  Richmond  had  been  one  called 
Spencer.  He  was  the  slave  of  somebody  in 
the  town,  but  made  himself  a  member  of  our 
household,  and  couldn't  be  got  rid  of.  Spen- 
cer was  inefficient,  unsightly,  and  unclean, — a 
black  Caliban, —  and  had  the  manners  of 
a  corn-field  darky.  He  always  called  Mr. 
Davis  "  Marse  Jeff,"  and  was  the  only  one  of 
the  domestics  who  used  that  style  of  address. 
I  fancy  the  amusement  Mr.  Davis  felt  at  that 
was  the  real  explanation  of  the  continued 
sufferance  extended  to  the  fellow  by  the  fam- 
ily for  a  year  or  more.  Spencer  would  often 
go  to  the  door  to  answer  the  bell,  and  almost 
invariably  denied  that  Mr.  Davis  was  at 
home.  The  visitor  sometimes  entered  the 
hall,  notwithstanding,  and  asked  to  have  his 
name  sent  up ;  whereupon  Spencer  generally 
lost  his  temper  and  remarked,  "  I  tell  you, 


sir,  Marse  Jeff  'clines  to  see  you";  and  unless 
somebody  came  to  the  rescue,  the  intruder 
rarely  got  any  further.  This  Spencer  had  ac- 
companied the  party  from  Richmond  to 
Danville,  but  had  made  the  journey  in  a 
box-car  with  a  drunken  officer,  who  beat 
him.  The  African  was  overwhelmed  with 
disgust  at  such  treatment,  and  announced 
in  Danville  that  he  should  go  no  further  if 

was  to  be  of  the  party.    When  he  had 

learned,  however,  that  his  enemy  (being 
in  a  delirium  and  unable  to  be  moved)  was 
to  be  left  behind  at  Danville,  Spencer  cheer- 
fully reported  at  the  train,  and  asked  for 
transportation.  I  assigned  him  to  a  box-car 
with   the  parcels  of  fuses,  etc.,  put  aboard 

by  General  R ;  and  he  had  not  yet  made 

himself  comfortable  there,  when  somebody 
mischievously  told  him  those  things  would 
certainly  explode  and  blow  him  to  "king- 
dom come."  The  darky  fled  immediately, 
and  demanded  of  me  other  quarters.  I 
told  him  he  couldn't  travel  in  any  other 
car;  and  that,  happily,  relieved  us  of 
his  company.  Mournfully  remarking,  "  Den 
Marse  Jeff '11  have  to  take  keer  of  hisself," 
Spencer,  the  valiant  and  faithful,  bade  me 
good-bye,  and  said  he  should  return  to  Rich- 
mond ! 

We  halted  for  several  days  at  Greensboro' 
for  consultation  with  General  j'oseph  E. 
Johnston,  whose  army  was  then  confronting 
Sherman.  The  people  in  that  part  of  North 
Carolina  had  not  been  zealous  supporters 
of  the  Confederate  Government ;  and,  so  long 
as  we  remained  in  the  State,  we  observed 
their  indifference  to  what  should  become  of 
us.  It  was  rarely  that  anybody  asked  one  of 
us  to  his  house;  and  but  few  of  them  had 
the  grace  even  to  explain  their  fear  that, 
if  they  entertained  us,  their  houses  would  be 
burned  by  the  enemy,  when  his  cavalry  should 
get  there. 

During  the  halt  at  Greensboro'  most  of 
us  lodged  day  and  night  in  the  very  un- 
comfortable railway  cars  we  had  arrived 
in.  The  possessor  of  a  large  house  in  the 
town,  and  perhaps  the  richest  and  most  con- 
spicuous of  the  residents,  came  indeed  effu- 
sively to  the  train,  but  carried  off  only  Mr. 
Trenholm,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
This  hospitality  was  explained  by  the  infor- 
mation that  the  host  was  the  alarmed  owner 
of  many  of  the  bonds,  and  of  much  of  the 
currency,  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  that 
he  hoped  to  cajole  the  Secretary  into 
exchanging  a  part  of  the  "Treasury  gold" 
for  some  of  those  securities.  It  appeared 
that  we  were  reputed  to  have  many  millions 
of  gold  with  us.  Mr.  Trenholm  was  ill  during 
most  or  all  of  the  time  at  the  house  of  his 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


J33 


warm-hearted  host,  and  the  symptoms  were 
said  to  be  greatly  aggravated,  if  not  caused, 
by  importunities  with  regard  to  that  gold. 

Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  of  our  staff, 
had,  some  time  before,  removed  his  family  to 
Greensboro'  from  Richmond,  and  took  the 
President  (who  would  otherwise  have  prob- 
ably been  left  with  us  in  the  cars)  to  share  his 
quarters  near  by.  The  Woods  were  boarding, 
and  their  rooms  were  few  and  small.  The 
entertainment  they  were  able  'to  offer  their 
guest  was  meager,  and  was  distinguished  by 
very  little  comfort  either  to  him  or  to  them, 
the  people  of  the  house  continually  and  vig- 
orously insisting  to  the  colonel  and  his  wife, 
the  while,  that  Mr.  Davis  must  go  away,  say- 
ing they  were  unwilling  to  have  the  ven- 
geance of  Stoneman's  cavalry  brought  upon 
them  by  his  presence  in  their  house. 

The  alarm  of  these  good  people  was  not 
allayed  when  they  ascertained,  one  day,  that 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with  General 
Breckinridge  (Secretary  of  War),  General 
Beauregard,  Mr.  Benjamin  (Secretary  of 
State),  Mr.  Mallory  (Secretary  of  the  Navy), 
Mr.  Reagan  (Postmaster-General),  and  per- 
haps one  or  two  other  members  of  the  cab- 
inet and  officers  of  the  army,  were  with  the 
President,  in  Colonel  Wood's  rooms,  hold- 
ing a  council  of  war. 

That  route  through  North  Carolina  had 
been  for  some  time  the  only  line  of  commu- 
nication between  Virginia  and  Georgia  and 
the  Gulf  States.  The  roads  and  towns  were 
full  of  officers  and  privates  from  those  South- 
ern States,  belonging  to  the  Army  of  North- 
ern Virginia.  Many  of  them  had  been  home 
on  furlough,  and  were  returning  to  the  army 
when  met  by  the  news  of  General  Lee's 
surrender ;  others  were  stragglers  from  their 
commands.  All  were  now  going  home,  and, 
as  some  of  the  bridges  south  of  Greensboro' 
had  been  burned  by  the  enemy's  cavalry,  and 
the  railways  throughout  the  southern  country 
generally  were  interrupted,  of  course  every- 
body wanted  the  assistance  of  a  horse  or 
mule  on  his  journey.  Few  had  any  scruples 
as  to  how  to  get  one. 

T  remember  that  a  band  of  eight  or  ten 
young  Mississippians,  at  least  one  of  them 
an  officer  (now  a  prominent  lawyer  in  New 
Orleans),  and  several  of  them  personally 
known  to  me,  offered  themselves  at  Greens- 
boro' as  an  escort  for  the  President.  Until 
something  definite  should  be  known,  how- 
ever, as  to  our  future  movements,  I  was 
unable  to  say  whether  they  could  be  of  ser- 
vice in  that  capacity.  After  several  days 
of  waiting,  they  decided  for  themselves. 
Arousing  me  in  the  small  hours  of  the 
night,  their  self-constituted  commander  said 


if  I  had  any  orders  or  suggestions  to  give 
they  should  be  glad  to  have  them  on  the 
spot,  as,  otherwise,  it  had  become  expedient 
to  move  on  immediately.  I  asked  what  had 
happened.  He  showed  me  the  horses  they 
had  that  night  secured  by  "  pressing  "  them 
from  neighboring  farmers,  and  particularly 
his  own  mount,  a  large  and  handsome  dap- 
ple-gray stallion,  in  excellent  condition.  I 
congratulated  him  on  his  thrift,  and  in  an 
instant  they  were  off  in  a  gallop  through  the 
mud.  The  President's  horses,  my  own,  and 
those  belonging  to  the  other  gentlemen  of  our 
immediate  party,  were  tied  within  a  secure 
inclosure  while  we  remained  at  Greensboro', 
and  were  guarded  by  the  men  (about  a  dozen) 
who,  having  received  wounds  disabling  them 
for  further  service  in  the  field,  had  acted  as 
sentinels  during  the  last  year  at  the  President's 
house  in  Richmond,  under  the  command  of 
a  gallant  young  officer  who  had  lost  an  arm. 

The  utmost  vigilance  was  necessary,  from 
this  time  on,  in  keeping  possession  of  a  good 
horse.  I  remember  that  at  Charlotte,  some 
days  later,  Colonel  Burnett,  senator  from  Ken- 
tucky, told  me  he  had  just  come  very  near 
losing  his  mare.  He  had  left  her  for  a 
little  while  at  a  large  stable  where  there  were 
many  other  horses.  Going  back  after  a  short 
absence,  Burnett  noticed  a  rakish-looking  fel- 
low walking  along  the  stalls,  and  carefully  ob- 
serving the  various  horses  until  he  came  to 
the  mare,  when,  after  a  moment's  considera- 
tion, he  called  out  to  a  negro  rubbing  down 
a  neighboring  horse  :  "  Boy,  saddle  my  mare 
here;  and  be  quick  about  it."  The  negro  an- 
swered, "  Aye,  aye,  sir,"  and  was  about  to 
obey,  when  the  senator  stepped  up,  saying : 
"  My  friend,  you  are  evidently  a  judge  of 
horseflesh ;  and  I  feel  rather  complimented 
that,  after  looking  through  the  whole  lot,  you 
have  selected  my  mare !  "  The  chap  coolly 
replied,  "  Oh  !  is  that  your  mare,  Colonel  ?  " 
and  walked  off.  When  we  had  laughed 
over  the  story,  I  asked  Burnett,  "  Well,  and 
where  is  she  now  ? "  "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I 
sha'n't  trust  her  out  of  my  sight  again;  and 
Gus  Henry  is  holding  her  for  me  down  at 
the  corner  until  I  can  get  back  there."  The 
person  thus  familiarly  spoken  of  as  "  Gus  " 
Henry,  then  acting  as  a  hostler  for  his  friend, 
was  the  venerable  and  distinguished  senator 
from  Tennessee,  with  all  of  the  stateliness 
and  much  of  the  eloquence  of  his  kinsman, 
Patrick  Henry,  the  great  orator  of  Virginia. 

At  Greensboro'  were  large  stores  of  .sup- 
plies belonging  to  the  quartermaster  and 
commissary  departments.  These  were  to  be 
kept  together  until  it  could  be  ascertained 
whether  General  Johnston's  army  would  need 
them.    I  recollect,  as  one  of  the  incidents  of 


\ 


134 


THE    CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


our  sojourn  there,  that,  after  many  threats 
during  several  days  to  do  so,  a  formidable 
attack  was  made  by  men  belonging  to  a  cav- 
alry regiment  upon  one  of  the  depots  where 
woolen  cloths  (I  think)  were  stored.  They 
charged  down  the  road  in  considerable  force, 
with  yells  and  an  occasional  shot;  but  the 
'•  Home  Guards,"  stationed  at  the  store-house, 
stood  firm,  and  received  the  attack  with  a 
well  directed  volley.  I  saw  a  number  of  sad- 
dles emptied,  and  the  cavalry  retreat  in  con- 
fusion. Notwithstanding  the  utmost  vigilance 
of  the  officers,  however,  pilfering  from  the 
stores  went  on  briskly  all  the  time ;  and  I 
fancy  that,  immediately  after  we  left,  there  was 
a  general  scramble  for  what  remained  of  the 
supplies. 

From  Greensboro',  at  this  time,  a  railway 
train  was  dispatched  toward  Raleigh  with 
a  number  of  prisoners,  to  be  exchanged,  if 
possible,  for  some  of  our  own  men  then  in 
General  Sherman's  hands.  They  were  in 
charge  of  Major  William  H.  Norris,  of  Balti- 
more (Chief  of  the  Signal  Corps),  and  Major 
W.  D.  Hennen.  The  latter  had,  before  the 
v  ar,  been  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
New  Orleans  bar,  and  has  since  been  at  the 
bar  in  New  York.  Those  two  officers  were 
at  Yale  College  together  in  their  youth, 
and  had  shared  in  many  a  frolic  in  Paris 
and  other  gay  places.  They  evidently  re- 
garded this  expedition  with  the  prisoners  as 
a  huge  "  lark."  The  train  moved  off  with  a 
flag  of  truce  flying  from  the  locomotive. 
When,  a  day  or  two  afterward,  they  ap- 
proached the  enemy's  lines,  the  prisoners  all 
got  out  of  the  cars  and  ran  off  to  their  friends, 
and  Norris  and  Hennen  were  themselves 
made  prisoners  !  Indignant  at  such  treatment, 
they  addressed  a  communication  to  the  com- 
manding officer  (Schofield,  I  think),  demand- 
ing to  know  why  they  were  treated  as  pris- 
oners, and  why  their  flag  had  not  been  re- 
spected. Schofield  considered  the  Confed- 
erate Government  was  now  no  more,  and 
asked  what  flag  they  referred  to.  This  gave 
Hennen  a  great  opportunity,  and  he  over- 
powered the  enemy  with  a  reply  full  of  his 
most  fervid  eloquence  r'<rWhat~tra§^  The 
flag  before  which  the  '  star--spangledT3aTnrer! , 
has  been  ignominiously  trailed  in  the  dust  of 
a  thousand  battle-fields  !  The  flag  that  has 
driven  from  the  ocean  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  !  The  flag  which  will  live  in 
history  as  long  as  the  heroic  achievements  of 
patriotic  men  are  spoken  of  among  the  na- 
tions !  The  glorious,  victorious,  and  immor- 
tal flag  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America! " 

We  moved  southward  on,  I  think,  the  day- 
following  the  council  of  war  held  with  Gen- 
eral Johnston,  starting  from  Greensboro'  in 


the  afternoon.  The  President,  those  of  us 
who  constituted  his  immediate  staff,  and 
some  members  of  the  cabinet,  were  mounted. 
Others  rode  in  ambulances,  army  wagons,  or 
such  conveyances  as  could  be  got.  Almost 
at  the  last  minute  I  was  told  I  must  provide 
an  ambulance  for  Mr.  Judah  P.  Benjamin, 
Secretary  of  State.  His  figure  was  not  well 
adapted  for  protracted  riding,  and  he  had 
firmly  announced  that  he  should  not  mount 
a  horse  until  obliged  to.* 

By  good  fortune,  I  was  able  to  secure  an 
ambulance ;  but  the  horses  were  old  and 
broken  down,  of  a  dirty  gray  color,  and  with 
spots  like  fly-bites  all  over  them, — and  the 
harness  was  not  good.  There  was  no  choice, 
however,  and  into  that  ambulance  got  Mr. 
Benjamin,  General  Samuel  Cooper  (Adjutant 
General,  and  ranking  officer  of  the  whole 
army),  Mr.  George  Davis  (of  North  Carolina, 
Attorney-General),  and  Mr.  Jules  St.  Martin, 
Benjamin's  brother-in-law. 

By  the  time  they  got  off,  the  front  of  our 
column  had  been  some  time  in  motion,  and 
the  President  had  ridden  down  the  road. 
Heavy  rains  had  recently  fallen,  the  earth 
was  saturated  with  water,  the  soil  was  a  sticky 
red  clay,  the  mud  was  awful,  and  the  road, 
in  places,  almost  impracticable.  The  wheeled 
vehicles  could  move  but  slowly ;  and  it  was 
only  by  sometimes  turning  into  the  fields  and 
having  St.  Martin  and  the  Attorney-General 
get  out  to  help  the  horses  with  an  occasional 
fence-rail  under  the  axles,  that  their  party  got 
along  at  all — so  difficult  was  the  road  because 
of  the  mud,  and  so  formidable  were  the  holes 
made  during  the  winter,  and  deepened  by  the 
artillery  and  heavy  wagons  that  day.  I  was 
near  them  from  time  to  time,  and  rendered 
what  assistance  I  could.  Darkness  came  on 
after  awhile,  and  nearly  or  quite  everybody  in 
the  column  passed  ahead  of  that  ambulance. 
Having  been  kept  latterly  in  the  rear  by 
something  detaining  me,  I  observed,  as  I  rode 

*  That  he  could  handle  a  steed  in  an  emergency 
was  very  well  known,  and  was  afterward  shown  when 
he  dexterously  got  himself  into  the  saddle  upon  a  tall 
horse,  and,  with  short  legs  hanging  but  an  inconsider- 
able distance  toward  the  ground,  rode  gayly  off  with 
the  others  of  the  President's  following  until,  after  their 
night  march  from  Abbeville,  South  Carolina,  across 
the  Savannah  River,  sniffing  the  danger  of  longer  con- 
tinuance with  so  large  a  party,  he  set  out  alone  for  the 
sea-coast,  whence  he  escaped  (to  Bermuda  and  Havana, 
I  think,  and  finally)  to  England.  I  am  told  that  in  his 
pocket,  when  he  started,  was  a  document  from  one  of 
the  assistants  to  the  adjutant-general  of  the  army,  cer- 
tifying the  bearer  to  be  a  French  citizen,  entitled  to 
travel  without  hinderance,  and  ordering  all  Confederate 
officers  and  pickets  to  let  him  pass  freely ;  and  that  it 
was  understood  that  if  he  should  encounter  inquisitive 
detachments  of  the  United  States  forces,  he  was  to  be 
unable  to  talk  any  other  language  than  French,  which 
he  speaks  like  a  native.  So  long  as  he  remained 
with  us  his  cheery  good  humor,  and  readiness  to  adapt 


/ 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


*3S 


forward,  the  tilted  hind-part  of  an  ambulance 
stuck  in  the  mud  in  the  middle  of  the  road, 
and  recognized  the  voices  inside,  as  I  drew 
rein  for  a  moment  to  chuckle  at  their  mis- 
fortunes. The  horses  were  blowing  like  two 
rusty  fog-horns  ;  Benjamin  was  scolding  the 
driver  for  not  going  on;  that  functionary 
was  stoically  insisting  they  could  proceed  no 
whit  further,  because  the  horses  were  broken 
down  ;  and  General  Cooper  (faithful  old  gen- 
tleman, he  had  been  in  Richmond  through- 
out our  war,  and  had  not  known  since  the 
Seminole  war  what  it  is  to  "  rough  it ") 
was  grumbling  about  the  impudence  of  a 
subordinate  officer  ("  only  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral, sir  ").  It  seems  the  offender  had  thrust 
himself  into  the  seat  in  another  ambulance 
drawn  by  good  horses,  that  was  intended  for 
the  Adjutant-General.  Getting  alongside,  I 
could  see  the  front  wheels  were  over  the  hubs 
in  a  hole ;  the  hind  legs  of  the  horses  were  in 
the  same  hole,  up  to  the  hocks ;  and  the  feet 
of  the  driver  hung  down  almost  into  the 
mud.  Mud  and  water  were  deep  all  around 
them,  and  their  plight  was  pitiful  indeed ! 
They  plucked  up  their  spirits  only  when  I 
offered  to  get  somebody  to  pull  them  out. 
Riding  forward,  I  found  an  artillery  camp, 
where  some  of  the  men  volunteered  to  go 
back  with  horses  and  haul  the  ambulance  up 
the  hill ;  and,  returning  to  •  them  again,  I 
could  see  from  afar  the  occasional  bright 
glow  of  Benjamin's  cheerful  cigar.  While  the 
others  of  the  party  were  perfectly  silent,  Benja- 
min's silvery  voice  was  presently  heard  as  he 
rhythmically  intoned,  for  their  comfort,  verse 
after  verse  of  Tennyson's  ode  on  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  !  The  laureate  would 
have  enjoyed  the  situation  could  he  have 
heard  the  appreciative  rendering  of  his  no- 
ble poem  — under  the  circumstances  of  that 
moment ! 

Reaching  the  house  at  the  top  of  the  hill, 
we   halted   on   hearing   that    the    President 

himself  to  the  requirements  of  all  emergencies,  made 
him  a  most  agreeable  comrade.  He  is  now  a  Queen's 
Counsel  in  London,  and  has  just  retired  from  the  active 
work  of  a  great  and  lucrative  practice  in  all  the  courts 
there,  after  a  career  of  singular  interest.  He  was  born, 
in  1812,  in  one  of  the  BritJsh  West  India  possessions, 
the  ship,  conveying  his  parents  to  this  country  from 
England,  having  put  in  there  on  learning  at  sea  of 
the  declaration  of  war  by  the  United  States.  At  Yale 
College  when  a  boy ;  at  the  bar  in  New  Orleans  ;  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  from  Louisiana ;  at  first 
attorney-general,  next  secretary  of  war,  and  finally 
secretary  of  state  of  the  Confederate  States,  at  Rich- 
mond. When  he  was  recently  entertained  at  dinner, 
in  the  beautiful  Inner  Temple  Hall  (surrounded  by 
the  portraits  of  the  most  illustrious  of  those  who  have 
given  dignity  to  the  profession  in  the  past),  the  bench 
and  bar  of  the  United  Kingdom  were  assembled  to  do 
him  special  honor;  about  two  hundred  sat  at  the 
table ;  the  Attorney-General  presided,  as  leader  of  the 
bar  of  England;   the  Lord  Chancellor  and  the  Lord 


and  his  party,  including  General  Breckin- 
ridge, were  the  guests  of  the  hospitable 
owner,  and  that  we  were  expected  to  join 
them.  There  we  had  the  first  good  meal 
encountered  since  leaving  A^irginia,  and  when 
bed-time  came  a  great  bustling  was  made  to 
enable  us  all  to  sleep  within  doors,  though 
the  house  was  too  small  to  afford  many  beds. 
A  big  negro  man,  with  a  candle  in  hand,  then 
came  into  the  room  where  we  were  gather- 
ed about  a  huge  fire.  Looking  us  over,  he 
solemnly  selected  General  Cooper,  and,  with 
much  deference,  escorted  him  into  the 
"  guest-chamber "  through  a  door  opening 
from  the  room  we  occupied.  We  could  see  the 
great  soft  bed  and  snowy  white  linen  the  old 
gentleman  was  to  enjoy,  and  all  rejoiced  in  the 
comfort  they  promised  to  aged  bones,  that  for 
a  week  had  been  racked  in  the  cars.  The  ne- 
gro gravely  shut  the  door  upon  his  guest,  and, 
walking  through  our  company,  disappeared. 
He  came  back  after  awhile  with  wood  for 
our  fire ;  and  one  of  us  asked  him,  "  Aren't 
you  going  to  give  the  President  a  room  ?  " 
"  Yes,  sir,  I  done  put  him  in  thar,"  pointing  to 
the  "  guest-chamber,"  where  General  Cooper 
was  luxuriating  in  delights  procured  for  him 
by  the  mistaken  notion  of  the  darky  that  he 
was  Mr.  Davis !  The  President  and  one  or 
two  others  were  presently  provided  for  else- 
where, and  the  rest  of  us  bestowed  ourselves 
to  slumber  on  the  floor,  before  the  roaring  fire. 
■*  A  better  team  for  Benjamin's  party  was  fur- 
nished next  morning ;  and,  just  as  we  were 
about  to  start,  our  host  generously  insisted 
upon  presenting  to  Mr.  Davis  a  filly,  already 
broken  to  saddle.  She  was  a  beauty,  and  the 
owner  had  kept  her  locked  for  several  days  in 
the  cellar,  the  only  place  he  considered  safe 
against  horse-thieves. 

The  next  night  we  bivouacked  in  a  pine 
grove  near  Lexington,  and  were  overtaken 
there  by  dispatches  from  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  with  information  of  his  arrange- 
Chief  Justice  were  among  those  who  spoke  to  toasts, 
and  if  there  was  any  speech  more  graceful  and 
striking  than  those  made  by  them,  it  was  the  reply 
of  Mr.  Benjamin  himself,  with  singular  modesty  and 
felicity,  to  the  words  of  praise  he  had  just  heard  from 
the  eloquent  Attorney-General.  Lord  Chancellor  Sel- 
borne  then  said  of  him :  "  If  I  had  to  speak  of 
Mr.  Benjamin  only  as'  an  English  barrister,  as  I 
have  known  him  from  the  bench,  I  should  say  that 
no  man,  within  my  recollection,  has  possessed 
greater  learning,  or  displayed  greater  shrewdness 
or  ability,  or  greater  zeal  for  the  interests  intrusted 
to  him,  than  he  has  exhibited.  (Cheers.)  To  these 
high  qualities  he  has  united  one  still  higher — the 
highest  sense  of  honor,  united  with  the  greatest 
kindness  and  generosity  (cheers),  and  the  greatest 
geniality  in  his  intercourse  with  all  the  branches  of 
the  profession.  (Loud  cheers.)  That  we  should  no 
longer  have  the  benefit  of  his  assistance  and  the 
light  of  his  example,  is  a  loss  to  us  all.   (Cheers.)  " 


\ 


i36 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


ment  for  negotiations  with  General  Sherman. 
General  Breckinridge  and  Mr.  Reagan  (the 
Postmaster-General)  were  thereupon  directed 
by  the  President  to  proceed  immediately  to 
General  Johnston's  head-quarters  for  con- 
sultation with  that  officer,  and  with  large 
discretion  as  to  what  should  be  agreed  to. 
They  set  off  instantly. 

In  Lexington  and  in  Salisbury  we  experi- 
enced the  same  cold  indifference  on  the  part 
of  the  people,  first  encountered  at  Greens- 
boro', except  that  at  Salisbury  Mr.  Davis 
was  invited  to  the  house  of  a  clergyman, 
where  he  slept.  Salisbury  had  been  entered 
a  few  days  before  by  a  column  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry  (said  to  be  Stoneman's),  and  the  streets 
showed  many  evidences  of  the  havoc  they 
had  wrought.  With  one  or  two  others,  I 
passed  the  night  on  the  clergyman's  front 
piazza  as  a  guard  for  the  President. 

During  all  this  march  Mr.  Davis  was 
singularly  equable  and  cheerful;  he  seemed 
to  have  had  a  great  load  taken  from  his 
mind,  to  feel  relieved  of  responsibilities,  and 
his  conversation  was  bright  and  agreeable. 
He  talked  of  men  and  of  books,  particularly 
of  Walter  Scott  and  Byron ;  of  horses  and 
dogs  and  sports ;  of  the  woods  and  the  fields  ; 
of  trees  and  many  plants  ;  of  roads,  and  how 
to  make  them ;  of  the  habits  of  birds,  and  of 
a  variety  of  other  topics.  His  familiarity  with, 
and  correct  taste  in,  the  English  literature  of 
the  last  generation,  his  varied  experiences  in 
life,  his  habits  of  close  observation,  and  his 
extraordinary  memory,  made  him  a  charming 
companion  when  disposed  to  talk. 

Indeed,  like  Mark  Tapley,  we  were  all  in 
good  spirits  under  adverse  circumstances;  and 
I  particularly  remember  the  entertaining  con- 
versation of  Mr.  Mallory,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy. 

Not  far  from  Charlotte,  I  sent  forward  a 
courier  with  a  letter  to  Major  Echols,  the 
quartermaster  of  that  post,  asking  him  to 
inform  Mrs.  Davis  of  our  approach,  and  to  pro- 
vide quarters  for  as  many  of  us  as  possible.  The 
major  rode  out  to  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  and 
there  met  us  with  the  information  that  Mrs. 
Davis  and  her  family  had  hastily  proceeded 
toward  South  Carolina  several  days  before. 
He  didn't  knowwhere  she  was  to  be  found;  but 
said  she  had  fled  when  the  railway  south  of 
Greensboro'  had  been  cut  by  the  enemy's 
cavalry.  The  major  then  took  me  aside  and 
explained  that,  though  quarters  could  be  fur- 
nished for  the  rest  of  us,  he  had  as  yet  been 
able  to  find  only  one  person  willing  to  receive 
Mr.  Davis,  saying  the  people  generally  were 
afraid  that  whoever  entertained  him  would 
have  his  house  burned  by  the  enemy;  that, 
indeed,  it  was  understood  threats  to  that  effect 


had  been  made  everywhere  by  Stoneman's 
cavalry. 

There  seemed  to  be  nothing  to  do  but  to 
go  to  the  one  domicile  offered.  It  was  on  the 
main  street  of  the  town,  and  was  occupied 
by  Mr.  Bates,  a  man  said  to  be  of  northern 
birth,  a  bachelor  of  convivial  habits,  the  local 
agent  of  the  Southern  Express  Company, 
apparently  living  alone  with  his  negro  serv- 
ants, and  keeping  a  sort  of  "  open  house," 
where  a  broad,  well  equipped  sideboard  was 
the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  situation 
— not  at  all  a  seemly  place  for  Mr.  Davis. 

Just  as  we  had  entered  the  house,  Mr. 
Davis  received  by  courier  from  General 
Breckinridge,  at  General  Sherman's  head- 
quarters, the  intelligence  that  President  Lin- 
coln had  been  assassinated ;  and,  when  he 
communicated  it  to  us,  everybody's  remark 
was  that,  in  Lincoln,  the  Southern  States  had 
lost  their  only  refuge  in  their  then  emergency. 
There  was  no  expression  other  than  of  sur- 
prise and  regret.  As  yet,  we  knew  none  of 
the  particulars  of  the  crime. 

Presently,  the  street  was  filled  by  a  column 
of  cavalry  (the  command,  I  think,  of  General 
Basil  Duke,  of  Kentucky)  just  entering  the 
town.  As  they  rode  past  the  house,  the  men 
waved  their  flags  and  hurrahed  for  "  Jefferson 
Davis."  Many  of  them  halted  before  the 
door,  and,  in  dust  and  uproar,  called  loudly 
for  a  speech  from  him.  I  was  in  the  crowd, 
gathered  thick  about  the  steps,  and  not  more 
than  ten  feet  from  the  door.  Mr.  Davis 
stood  on  the  threshold  and  made  a  very 
brief  reply  to  their  calls  for  a  speech.  I  dis- 
tinctly heard  every  word  he  said.  He  merely 
thanked  the  soldiers  for  their  cordial  greet- 
ings ;  paid  a  high  compliment  to  the  gallantry 
and  efficiency  of  the  cavalry  from  the  State 
in  which  the  regiment  before  him  had  been  re- 
cruited ;  expressed  his  own  determination  not 
to  despair  of  the  Confederacy,  but  to  remain 
with  the  last  organized  band  upholding  the 
flag;  and  then  excused  himself  from  further 
remarks,  pleading  the  fatigue  of  travel.  He 
said  nothing  more.  Somebody  else  (Mr.  John- 
son, I  think,  a  prominent  resident  there)  read 
aloud  the  dispatch  from  General  Breckinridge 
about  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln, 
but  no  reference  was  made  to  it  in  Mr.  Davis's 
speech.  There  was  no  other  speech,  and  the 
crowd  soon  dispersed.* 

Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  Colonel  Will- 

*  In  pursuance  of  the  scheme  of  Stanton  and  Holt 
to  fasten  upon  Mr.  Davis  charges  of  a  guilty  fore- 
knowledge of,  if  not  participation  in,  the  murder  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  Bates  was  afterward  carried  to  Wash- 
ington and  made  to  testify  (before  the  military  tribunal, 
I  believe,  where-  the  murderers  were  on  trial)  to  some- 
thing about  that  speech. 

As  I  recollect  the  reports  of  the  testimony,  published 


/ 


I 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


137 


iam  Preston  Johnston,  and  Colonel  Frank 
R.  Lubbock,  staff  officers,  remained  in  Bates's 
house  with  the  President.  There  was  no  room 
for  more.  I  was  carried  off  by  my  Hebrew 
friend  Weil  and  most  kindly  entertained,  with 
Mr.  Benjamin  and  St.  Martin,  at  his  residence. 

On  Sunday  (the  next  day,  I  think),  a  num- 
ber of  us  attended  service  at  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  heard  the  rector  preach  vigor- 
ously about  the  sad  condition  of  the  country, 
and  in  reprobation  of  the  folly  and  wicked- 
ness of  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 
As  Mr.  Davis  walked  away,  after  the  sermon, 
with  Colonel  Johnston  and  me,  he  said,  with 
a  smile,  "  I  think  the  preacher  directed  his 
remarks  at  me;  and  he  really  seems  to  fancy 
I  had  something  to  do  with  the  assassination." 
The  suggestion  was  absurd.  No  man  ever 
participated  in  a  great  war  of  revolution 
with  less  of  disturbance  of  the  nicest  sense 
of  perfect  rectitude  in  conduct  or  opinion ; 
his  every  utterance,  act,  and  sentiment  was 
with  the  strictest  regard  for  all  the  moralities, 
throughout  that  troubled  time  when  the  pas- 
sions of  many  people  made  them  reckless  or 
defiant  of  the  opinions  of  mankind. 

His  cheerfulness  continued  in  Charlotte, 
and  I  remember  his  there  saying  to  me,  "  I 
cannot  feel  like  a  beaten  man ! "  The  halt 
at  Charlotte  was  to  await  information  from 
the  army  of  General  Johnston.  After  a  few 
days,  the  President  became  nervously  anxious 
about  his  wife  and  family.  He  had  as  yet 
heard  nothing  of  their  whereabouts,  but  asked 
me  to  proceed  into  South  Carolina  in  search 
of  them,  suggesting  that  I  should  probably 
find  them  at  Abbeville.  He  told  me  I  must 
rely  on  my  own  judgment  as  to  what  course 
to  pursue  from  there;  that,  for  himself,  he 
should  make  his  way  as  rapidly  as  possible 
to  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department,  to  join 
the  army  under  Kirby  Smith. 

I  started  at  once,  taking  my  horse  on 
the  railway  train  to  Chester.  On  the  train 
chanced  to  be  Captain  Lingan,  an  officer 
from  New  Orleans,  recently  serving  at  Rich- 
mond as  an  assistant  to  the  commissioner  for 
the  exchange  of  prisoners.  He  had  his  horse 
with  him,  and  from  Chester  we  rode  together 

at  the  time,  they  made  the  witness  say  that  Mr.  Davis 
had  approved  of  the  assassination,  either  explicitly 
or  by  necessary  implication ;  and  that  he  had  added, 
"  If  it  was  to  be  done,  it  is  well  it  was  done  quickly," 
or  words  to  that  effect.  If  any  such  testimony  was 
given,  it  is  false  and  without  foundation ;  no  com- 
ment upon  or  reference  to  the  assassination  was  made 
in  that  speech.  I  have  been  told  the  witness  has 
always  stoutly  insisted  he  never  testified  to  anything 
of  the  kind,  but  that  what  he  said  was  altogether 
perverted  in  the  publication  made  by  rascals  in  Wash- 
ington. Colonel  William  Preston  Johnston  tells  me 
he  has  seen  another  version  of  the  story,  and  thinks 
Bates  is  understood  to  have  fathered  it  in  a  publication 


across  the  country-  to  Newberry,  there  to  take 
the  train  again  for  Abbeville.  In  Chester 
the  night  was  spent  in  the  car  that  brought 
us  there.  On  the  march  to  Newberry  we 
bivouacked.  The  weather  was  fine,  and  the 
houses  surrounded  by  jessamines  and  other 
flowers.  The  people  were  very  hospitable, 
and  we  fain  to  rely  upon  them.  Nothing  could 
be  bought,  because  we  had  no  money.  Our 
Confederate  currency  was  of  no  value  now, 
and  there  was  no  other.  Riding  through  a 
street  of  Newberry  in  search  of  the  quarter- 
master's stable,  Lingan  and  I  were  saluted 
by  a  lady,  mquiring  eagerly  whence  we  had 
come,  what  the  news  was,  and  whether  we 
knew  anything  of  Mr.  Trenholm,  adding  she 
had  heard  he  was  ill.  The  town  was  lovely, 
and  this  the  most  attractive  house  we  had 
seen  there.  It  had  a  broad  piazza,  with 
posts  beautifully  overgrown  by  vines  and 
rose-bushes,  and  the  grounds  around  were 
full  of  flowers.  I  replied  I  had  just  left 
Mr.  Trenholm  in  Charlotte ;  that  he  had 
somewhat  recovered ;  and  that,  if  she  would 
allow  us  to  do  so,  we  should  be  happy  to 
return,  after  providing  for  our  horses,  and 
tell  her  the  latest  news.  As  we  rode  off, 
Lingan  laughingly  said,  "  Well,  that  secures 
us  '  hospitable  entertainment.' "  And,  sure 
enough,  when  we  went  back  and  introduced 
ourselves,  we  were  cordially  received  by  the 
mistress  of  the  house,  who  invited  us  to  dine. 
The  lady  we  had  seen  on  the  piazza  was  only 
a  visitor  there  for  the  moment.  It  was  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Boyd,  the  president  of  a  bank, 
and  when  that  gentleman  presently  came  in 
he  courteously  insisted  upon  our  making  his 
house  our  home.  An  excellent  dinner  was 
served,  and  I  was  given  what  seemed  to  me 
the  most  delightful  bed  ever  slept  in.  After  a 
delicious  breakfast  next  morning,  Mrs.  Boyd 
dispatched  us  to  the  train  with  a  haversack 
full  of  bounties  for  the  rest  of  the  journey. 

At  Abbeville,  Mrs.  Davis  and  her  family 
were  the  guests  of  the  President's  esteemed 
friends,  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Burt;  and  there, 
too,  were  the  daughters  of  Mr.  Trenholm,  at 
the  house  of  their  brother.  Abbeville  was  a 
beautiful   place,  on   high   ground;    and   the 

made  in  some  newspaper  after  his  visit  to  Washing- 
ton ;  it  represents  Bates  as  saying  that  the  words  above 
mentioned  as  imputed  to  Mr.  Dans  were  used  by 
him,  not,  indeed,  in  the  speech  I  have  described,  but 
in  a  conversation  with  Johnston  at  Bates's  house. 
Johnston  assures  me  that,  in  that  shape,  too,  the  story 
is  false  —  that  Mr.  Davis  never  used  such  words  in  Ins 
presence,  or  any  words  at  all  like  them.  He  adds  that 
Mr.  Davis  remarked  to  him,  at  Bates's  house,  with 
reference  to  the  assassination,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would 
have  been  much  more  useful  to  the  Southern  States 
than  Andrew  Johnson,  the  successor,  was  likely  to  be; 
and  I  myself  heard  Mr.  Davis  express  the  same 
opinion  at  that  period. 


\ 


138 


THE    CAPTURE   OE  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


people  lived  in  great  comfort,  their  houses 
embowered  in  vines  and  roses,  with  many 
other  flowers  everywhere.  We  had  now  en- 
tered the  "  sunny  South." 

Mrs.  Davis  insisted  upon  starting  without 
delay  for  the  sea-coast,  to  get  out  of  the  reach 
of  capture.  She  and  her  sister  had  heard 
dreadful  stories  of  the  treatment  ladies  had 
been  subjected  to  in  Georgia  and  the  Caro- 
linas  by  men  in  Sherman's  army,  and  thought 
with  terror  of  the  possibility  of  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  indeed,  she  under- 
stood it  to  be  the  President's  wish  that  she 
should  hasten  to  seek  safety  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try. I  explained  to  her  the  difficulties  and 
hardships  of  the  journey  to  the  sea-coast, 
and  suggestefl  that  we  might  be  captured 
on  the  road,  urging  her  to  remain  where 
she  was  until  the  place  should  be  quietly 
occupied  by  United  States  troops,  assuring 
her  that  some  officer  would  take  care  that  no 
harm  should  befall  her,  and  adding  that  she 
would  then  be  able  to  rejoin  her  friends. 
Colonel  and  Mrs.  Burt  (a  niece  of  John  C. 
Calhoun)  added  their  entreaties  to  mine ; 
and  to  her  expression  of  unwillingness  to 
subject  them  to  the  danger  of  having  their 
house  burned  for  sheltering  her,  Colonel  Burt 
magnanimously  replied  that  there  was  no 
better  use  to  which  his  house  could  be  put 
than  to  have  it  burned  for  giving  shelter  to 
the  wife  and  family  of  his  friend.  But  she 
persisted  in  her  purpose,  and  begged  me  to 
be  off  immediately.  It  was  finally  decided 
to  make  our  way  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Madison,  Florida,  as  fast  as  possible,  there  to 
determine  how  best  to  get  to  sea. 

We  had  no  conveyance  for  the  ladies,  how- 
ever, and  were  at  a  loss  how  to  get  one,  until 
somebody  told  me  that  General  John  S. 
Williams,  of  Kentucky  (now  United  States 
Senator  from  that  State)  was  but  a  few 
miles  from  the  town  recruiting  his  health,  and 
that  he  had  a  large  and  strong  vehicle  well 
adapted  to  the  purpose.  I  rode  out  in 
the  direction  indicated,  and  discovered  that 
officer  at  the  house  of  a  man  called,  queerly 
enough,  "  Jeff"  Davis.  General  Williams  evi- 
dently perceived  that,  if  he  allowed  his  wagon 
and  horses  (a  fortune  in  those  times)  to  go 
beyond  his  own  reach,  he  would  never  see 
them  again,  such  was  the  disorder  through- 
out the  country.  But  he  gallantly  devoted 
them  to  Mrs.  Davis,  putting  his  property  at 
her  service  as  far  as  Washington,  Georgia, 
and  designating  the  man  to  bring  the  wagon 
and  horses  back  from  there,  if  possible,  to 
him  at  Abbeville.  Whether  he  ever  recovered 
them  I  have  not  learned ;  but  they  started  back 
promptly  after  we  had  reached  AVashington. 

Among  the  "  refugees  "  in  Abbeville  was 


the  family  of  Judge  Monroe,  of  Kentucky. 
At  their  house  were  Lieutenant  Hathaway, 
Mr.  Monroe,  and  Mr.  Messick, — Kentuck- 
ians  all,  and  then  absent  from  their  command 
in  the  cavalry,  on  sick  leave,  I  think.  These 
three  young  gentlemen  were  well  mounted, 
and  volunteered  to  serve  as  an  escort  for  Mrs. 
Davis. 

We  started  the  morning  of  the  second  day 
after  I  arrived  at  Abbeville,  and  had  not 
reached  the  Savannah  River  when  it  was  re- 
ported that  small-pox  prevailed  in  the  coun- 
try. All  the  party  had  been  vaccinated  except 
one  of  the  President's  children.  Halting  at  a 
house  near  the  road,  Mrs.  Davis  had  the 
operation  performed  by  the  planter,  who  got 
a  fresh  scab  from  the  arm  of  a  little  negro 
called  up  for  the  purpose. 

At  Washington,  we  halted  for  two  nights 
and  the  intervening  day.  Mrs.  Davis  and  her 
family  were  comfortably  lodged  in  the  town. 
I  was  the  guest  of  Dr.  Robertson,  the  cashier 
of  a  bank,  and  living  under  the  same  roof 
with  the  offices  of  that  institution.  Here,  too, 
was  my  friend  Major  Thomas  W.  Hall  (now 
a  busy  and  eminent  member  of  the  Baltimore 
bar),  talking  rather  despondingly  of  the  future, 
and  saying  he  did  not  know  what  he  should 
do  with  himself.  After  we  had  discussed  the 
situation,  however,  he  brightened  up,  with 
the  remark  that  he  thought  he  should  write  a 
book  about  the  war.  I  comforted  him  with 
the  observation  that  that  would  be  just  the 
thing;  and  that,  as  we  ought  all  to  have  a 
steady  occupation  in  life,  if  he  would  write  a 
book,  I  should  try  to  read  it ! 

Near  the  town  was  a  quartermaster's  camp, 
where  I  selected  three  or  four  army  wagons, 
each  with  a  team  of  four  good  mules,  and 
the  best  harness  to  be  got.  A  driver  for  each 
team,  and  several  supernumeraries,  friends  of 
theirs,  were  recruited  there,  with  the  prom- 
ise, on  my  part,  that  the  wagons  and  mules 
should  be  divided  between  them  when  at  our 
journey's  end.  These  men  were  all,  I  believe, 
from  southern  Mississippi,  and,  by  volunteer- 
ing with  us,  were  not  going  far  out  of  their 
own  way  home. 

It  was  night-fall  when  these  arrangements 
were  completed,  and  I  immediately  moved 
my  teams  and  wagons  to  a  separate  bivouac 
in  the  woods,  apart;  a  wise  precaution,  for, 
during  the  night,  some  men,  on  the  way  to 
their  homes  in  the  far  South-west,  "  raided  " 
the  quartermaster's  camp  and  carried  off  all 
the  best  mules  found  there.  Senator  Wigfall, 
of  Texas,  had  allowed  to  remain  in  the  camp 
some  mules  he  intended  for  his  own  use ;  the 
next  day  they  were  all  missing.* 

*  A  story  told  afterward  well  illustrates  Wigfall's 
audacity,  resources,  and  wit.    It  seems  that  he  made 


/ 


THE   CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


J39 


Into  the  wagons,  next  morning,  we  put 
Mrs.  Davis's  luggage,  a  few  muskets  with 
ammunition,  two  light  tents  for  the  ladies 
and  children,  and  utensils  for  cooking,  with 
supplies  for  ourselves  and  feed  for  the  animals 
supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  take  us  to  Madi- 
son. As  most  of  the  country  we  were  to  pass 
through  had  been  recently  devastated  by 
Sherman's  army,  or  was  pine  woods,  sparsely 
inhabited,  these  things  were  necessary. 

We  had  expected  to  leave  Washington 
with  only  the  party  we  arrived  with,  con- 
sisting of  Mrs.  Davis,  Miss  Howell,  the  four 
children,  Ellen,  James  Jones  with  the  two 
carriage  horses,  the  three  Kentuckians,  and 
myself, — adding  only  the  teamsters.  But,  at 
Washington  we  were  acceptably  reenforced 
by  Captain  Moody,  of  Port  Gibson,  Missis- 
sippi, and  Major  Victor  Maurin,  of  Louisiana. 
Both  had  served  with  the  artillery  in  Virginia, 
had  been  home  on  leave,  and  had  reached 
Augusta,  Georgia,  on  their  return  to  duty. 
Hearing  there  of  the  surrender  of  the  army, 
they  set  out  for  home  together,  and  met  us 
at  Washington,  where  Captain  Moody  kindly 
placed  his  light,  covered  wagon  at  the  service 
of  Mrs.  Davis;  and  he  and  Major  Maurin 
joined  our  party  as  an  additional  escort  for 
her.  Captain  Moody  had  with  him,  I  think, 
a  negro  servant. 

In  Washington,  at  that  time,  were  Judge 
Crump,  of  Richmond  (Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury),  and  several  of  his  clerks.  They 
had  been  sent  by  Mr.  Trenholm  in  advance, 
with  some  of  the  (not  very  large  amount  of) 
gold  brought  out  of  Richmond.  The  specie 
was  in  the  vaults  of  the  bank  at  Washington, 
and  I  did  not  hear  of  it  until  late  at  night. 
We  were  to  start  in  the  morning;  and,  as 
nobody  in  our  party  had  a  penny  of  the 
money  needed  to  prosecute  the  intended  exit 
from  the  country,  I  was  determined  to  get 
some  of  that  gold. 

One  of  the  Treasury  clerks  went  with  me 
to  the  house  where  Judge  Crump  was;  we 
got  him  out  of  bed ;  and,  after  a  long  argu- 
ment and  much  entreaty,  the  Assistant  Sec- 
retary gave  me  an  order  for  a  few  hundred 

his  way  as  best  he  could  to  Vicksburg,  and  there, 
mingling  with  a  large  number  of  paroled  soldiers 
returning  to  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  having  in  his 
pocket  a  borrowed  "parole  paper,"  certifying  the 
"bearer  to  be  "  Private  Smith,"  availed  himself  of  the 
transportation  furnished  by  the  United  States  quarter- 
master to  such  prisoners,  by  steam-boat,  I  think,  to 
Shreveport.  On  the  voyage  he  had  a  discussion  with 
some  of  the  guard  as  to  what  should  be  done  by  the 
Government  with  the  secession  leaders.  "  And  as  to 
Wigfall,"  said  one  of  the  men,  in  excitement,  "if  we 
catch  him,  we  shall  hang  him  immediately."  "There 
I  agree  with  you,"  remarked  Private  Smith,  "  'twould 
serve  him  right ;  and,  if  I  were  there,  I  should  be 
pulling  at  the  end  of  that  rope  myself!  " 


dollars  in  gold  for  Mrs.  Davis,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  dollars  for  myself.  The  amounts 
were  to  be  charged  to  the  President  and  me, 
as  upon  account  of  our  official  salaries. 
Armed  with  the  order,  my  friend  the  clerk 
got  the  money  for  us  that  night. 

The  last  two  people  I  talked  to  in  Wash- 
ington were  General  Robert  Toombs,  who 
resides  there,  and  General  Humphrey  Mar- 
shall, of  Kentucky. 

The  latter  was  enormously  fat.  He  had 
been  in  public  life  for  many  years,  and  was 
one  of  the  notables  of  his  State.  As  I  waited 
while  my  horse  was  shod,  he  sat  down  beside 
me  in  a  door-way  on  the  Square,  and,  though 
I  was  but  a  slender  youth,  almost  squeezed 
the  breath  out  of  my  body  in  doing  so. 
He  discussed  the  situation,  and  ended  with, 
"  Well,  Harrison,  in  all  my  days  I  never 
knew  a  government  to  go  to  pieces  in  this 
way,"  emphasizing  the  words  as  though  his 
pathway  through  life  had  been  strewed  with 
the  wrecks  of  empires,  comminuted  indeed, 
but  nothing  like  this !  The  next  time  I 
saw  him,  we  were  in  New  Orleans,  in 
March,  1866.  He  told  me  of  his  adventures 
in  escaping  from  Georgia  across  the  Missis- 
sippi River.  The  waters  were  in  overflow, 
and  made  the  distance  to  be  rowed,  where  he 
crossed,  a  number  of  miles.  He  said  he  was 
in  a  "  dug-out "  (a  boat  made  of  a  single 
large  log,  with  a  cylindrical  bottom  and 
easily  upset),  and  that  the  boatman  made 
him  lie  down,  for  fear  they  might  be  seen  by 
the  enemy  and  he  recognized  by  his  great  size, 
and  so  captured.  All  went  well  until  the  mos- 
quitoes swarmed  on  him,  and  nearly  devoured 
him  in  his  fear  of  capsizing  if  he  ventured 
to  adopt  effective  measures  to  beat  them  off! 
In  this  connection,  I  remember  that,  when 
Marshal]  commanded  a  brigade  in  the  mount- 
ains of  East  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  he 
was  warned  that  the  mountaineers,  Union 
men,  all  knew  him  because  of  his  size,  and 
that  some  sharp-shooter  would  be  sure  to 
single  him  out  and  pick  him  off.  He  replied : 
"  Ah  !  but  I  have  taken  precautions  against 
that.  I  have  a  fat  staff!  There  be  six  Rich- 
monds  in  the  field !  " 

As  I  rode  out  of  Washington  to  overtake 
my  wagons,  then  already  started,  I  saw  Gen- 
eral Toombs,  and  sung  out  "  Good-bye  "  to 
him.  He  was  dressed  in  an  ill-cut  black 
Websterian  coat,  the  worse  for  wear,  and  had 
on  a  broad-brimmed  shabby  hat.  Standing 
beside  an  old  buggy,  drawn  by  two  ancient 
gray  horses,  he  told  me  he  was  going  to 
Crawfordsville  to  have  a  talk  with  "Aleck" 
Stephens  (the  Vice-President) ;  and,  as  I  left, 
the  atmosphere  was  murky  with  blasphemies 
and  with  denunciations  of  the  Yankees !    He 


\ 


14° 


THE    CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


had  been  informed  of  a  detachment  of  the 
enemy's  cavalry  said  to  be  already  on  the  way 
to  capture  him,  and  was  about  to  start  for  the 
sea-coast.  The  next  time  I  saw  him,  he  was  at 
the  "  Theatre  du  Chatelet,"  in  Paris,  in  August 
or  September,  1866.  The  spectacle  was  one 
of  the  most  splendid  ever  put  upon  the  stage 
there,  and  the  French  people  were  in  raptures 
over  the  dazzling  beauty  of  the  scene.  Toombs, 
fashionably  dressed,  sat  in  an  orchestra  chair, 
regarding  it  all  with  the  stolid  composure  of 
an  Indian,  and  with  an  expression  of  coun- 
tenance suggesting  that  he  had  a  thousand 
times  seen  spectacles  more  brilliant  in  Wash- 
ington, Georgia. 

From  Washington  we  went  along  the -road 
running  due  south.  We  had  told  nobody  our 
plans;  though,  starting  as  we  did,  in  the 
broad  light  of  the  forenoon,  everybody  saw, 
of  course,  the  direction  taken.  Our  team- 
sters were  instructed  not  to  say  anything,  to 
anybody  whatever,  as  to  who  we  were  or 
whence  we  came  or  whither  we  were  going. 
They  were  all  old  soldiers  and  obeyed  orders. 
It  frequently  amused  me  to  hear  their  replies 
to  the  country  people,  during  the  next  few 
days,  when  questioned  on  these  matters. 

"  Who  is  that  lady  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Jones." 

"  Where  did  you  come  from  ?  " 

"  Up  the  road." 

"  Where  are  you  going  to  ?  " 

"  Down  the  road  a  bit,"  etc.,  etc. 

We  had  not  proceeded  far  when  a  gentle- 
man of  the  town,  riding  rapidly,  overtook  us 
with  a  letter  from  the  President  to  his  wife. 
It  had  been  written  at  York,  South  Carolina, 
I  think ;  was  forwarded  by  courier  to  overtake 
us  at  Abbeville,  and  had  reached  Washing- 
ton just  after  we  started.  It  merely  informed 
us  that  he  and  his  immediate  party  were  well, 
and  that  he  should  probably  ride  south  from 
Washington  to  cross  the  Mississippi,  if  pos- 
sible. I  think  no  reply  was  made  by  Mrs. 
Davis  to  the  letter  ;  and,  if  my  memory  serves 
me,  we  left  behind  us  nothing  to  advise  the 
President  as  to  where  we  were  going. 

That  afternoon  I  was  overcome  with  dys- 
entery and  a  low  fever,  and  dropped  behind 
for  a  time,  to  lie  down.  When  I  overtook 
the  party,  they  had  already  gone  into  camp ; 
and,  after  giving  my  horse  to  one  of  the 
men,  I  had  hardly  strength  enough  to  climb 
into  a  wagon,  there  to  pass  the  night. 

The  next  day  we  made  a  long  march,  and  had 
halted  for  the  night  in  a  pine  grove,  just  after 
crossing  a  railway  track,  when  several  visitors 
sauntered  into  our  camp.  Presently,  one  of 
the  teamsters  informed  me  that,  while  water- 
ing his  mules  near  by,  he  had  been  told  an 
attempt  would  be  made  during  the  night  to 


, 


carry  off  our  mules  and  wagons,  and  that  the 
visitors  were  of  the  party  to  make  the  attack. 
A  council  of  war  was  held  immediately,  and 
we  were  discussing  measures  of  resistance, 
when  Captain  Moody  went  off  for  a  personal 
parley  with  the  enemy.  He  returned  to  me 
with  the  news  that  the  leader  of  the  party 
was  a  fellow-Freemason,  a  Mississippian,  and 
apparently  not  a  bad  sort  of  person.  We 
agreed  he  had  better  be  informed  who  we 
were,  relying  upon  him  not  to  allow  an  attack 
upon  us  after  learning  that  Mrs.  Davis  and 
her  children  were  of  the  party.  Captain 
Moody  made  that  communication  in  the  con- 
fidence of  Freemasonry,  and  the  gallant 
Robin  Hood  immediately  approached  Mrs. 
Davis  in  all  courtesy,  apologized  for  having 
caused  her  any  alarm,  assured  her  she  should 
not  be  disturbed,  and  said  the  raid  had  been 
arranged  only  because  it  had  been  supposed 
we  were  the  party  of  some  quartermasters  from 
Milledgeville,  making  off  with  wagons  and 
mules  to  which  he  and  his  men  considered 
their  own  title  as  good  as  that  of  anybody  else. 
He  then  left  our  camp,  remarking,  however, 
that,  to  intercept  any  attempt  at  escape  dur- 
ing the  night,  he  had  already  dispatched 
some  of  his  men  to  the  cross-roads,  some  dis- 
tance below,  and  that  we  might  be  halted  by 
them  there  in  the  morning ;  but,  to  provide 
for  that  emergency,  he  wrote  and  delivered 
to  Captain  Moody  a  formal  "  order,"  entit- 
ling us  to  "  pass  "  his  outposts  at  the  cross- 
roads !  The  next  morning,  when  we  reached 
the  cross-roads,  some  men  were  there,  evident- 
ly intending  to  intercept  us ;  but  —  as  all  the 
gentlemen  of  our  party  were  in  the  saddle, 
and  we  appeared  to  be  ready  for  them — there 
was  no  challenge,  and  we  got  by  without 
recourse  to  Robin  Hood's  "  pass." 

About  the  second  or  third  day  after  that, 
we  were  pursued  by  another  party ;  and  one 
of  our  teamsters,  riding  a  short  distance  in 
the  rear  of  the  wagons  on  the  horse  of  one 
of  the  Kentuckians, — the  owner  having  ex- 
changed temporarily  for  one  of  the  carriage 
horses,  I  think, — was  attacked,  made  to  dis- 
mount, and  robbed  of  his  horse,  with  the  in- 
formation that  all  the  other  horses  and  the 
mules  would  be  taken  during  the  night.  By 
running  a  mile  or  two,  the  teamster  overtook 
us.  It  was  decided,  of  course,  to  prepare  for 
an  effective  defense.  As  night  came  on,  we 
turned  off  into  a  side  road,  and  reaching  a 
piece  of  high  ground  in  the  open  pine  woods, 
well  adapted  for  our  needs,  halted — corral- 
ling the  animals  within  a  space  inclosed  by 
the  wagons  (arranged  with  the  tongue  of 
one  wagon  fastened  by  chains  or  ropes  to 
the  tail  of  another)  and  placing  pickets. 
About  the  middle  of  the  night,  I,  with  two 


/ 


THE    CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


141 


teamsters,  constituted  the  picket  on  the  road 
running  north.  After  awhile  we  heard  the 
soft  tread  of  horses  in  the  darkness  approach- 
ing over  the  light,  sandy  soil  of  the  road. 
The  teamsters  immediately  ran  off  to  arouse 
the  camp,  having  no  doubt  the  attack  was 
about  to  begin.  I  placed  myself  in  the  road 
to  detain  the  enemy  as  long  as  possible,  and, 
when  the  advancing  horsemen  came  near 
enough  to  hear  me,  called  "  Halt."  They  drew 
rein  instantly.  I  demanded  "  Who  comes 
there  ?  "  The  foremost  of  the  horsemen  re- 
plied "  Friends,"  in  a  voice  I  was  astonished 
to  recognize  as  that  of  President  Davis,  not 
suspecting  he  was  anywhere  near  us. 

His  party  then  consisted  of  Colonel  Will- 
iam Preston  Johnston,  Colonel  John  Taylor 
Wood,  Colonel  Frank  R.  Lubbock,  Mr.  Rea- 
gan, Colonel  Charles  E.  Thorburn  (the  latter, 
with  a  negro  servant,  had  joined  them  at 
Greensboro',  North  Carolina),  and  Robert 
(Mr.  Davis's  own  servant).  Some  scouts  were 
scattered  through  the  country,  and  were  re- 
porting to  the  President  from  time  to  time ; 
but  I  don't  recollect  that  either  of  them  was 
with  him  on  the  occasion  now  referred  to. 

He  had  happened  to  join  us  at  all  only  be- 
cause some  of  his  staff  had  heard  in  the  af- 
ternoon, from  a  man  on  the  road-side,  that  an 
attempt  was  to  be  made  in  the  night  to  capt- 
ure the  wagons,  horses,  and  mules  of  a  party 
said  to  be  going  south  on  a  road  to  the  east- 
ward. The  man  spoke  of  the  party  to  be  at- 
tacked in  terms  that  seemed  to  identify  us, 
as  we  had  been  described  in  Washington. 
The  President  immediately  resolved  to  find 
us,  and,  turning  to  the  east  from  his  own  route, 
rode  until  after  midnight  before  he  overtook  us. 
He  explained  to  us,  at  the  time,  how  he  had 
tried  several  roads  in  the  search,  and  had  rid- 
den an  estimated  distance  of  sixty  miles  since 
mounting  in  the  morning ;  and  said  he  came 
to  assist  in  beating  off  the  persons  threatening 
the  attack.  As  we  had  camped  some  distance 
from  the  main  road,  he  would  have  passed  to 
the  westward  of  our  position,  and  would  prob- 
ably have  had  no  communication  with  us  and 
no  tidings  whatever  of  us,  but  for  the  chance 
remark  about  the  threatened  raid  upon  our 
animals.  The  expected  attack  was  not  made. 

The  President  remained  with  us  the  rest 
of  that  night,  rode  with  us  the  next  day, 
camped  with  us  the  following  night,  and,  after 
breakfast  the  day  after  that,  bade  us  good- 
bye and  rode  forward  with  his  own  party, 
leaving  us,  in  deference  to  our  earnest  solic- 
itations, to  pursue  our  journey  as  best  we 
might  with  our  wagons  and  incumbrances. 

He  camped  that  night  with  his  own  party 
at  Abbeville,  Georgia,  personally  occupying 
a  deserted  house  in  the  outskirts  of  the  village. 


As  they  had  reached  that  place  after  dark,  and 
a  furious  rain  was  falling,  but  few  of  the  people 
were  aware  of  his  presence,  and  nobody  in  the 
village  had  had  opportunity  to  identify  him. 

I  halted  my  party  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  Ocmulgee  River  as  the  darkness  came 
on,  immediately  after  getting  the  wagons 
through  the  difficult  bottom-lands  on  the  east- 
ern side,  and  after  crossing  the  ferry.  About 
the  middle  of  the  night  I  was  aroused  by 
a  courier  sent  back  by  the  President  with 
the  report  that  the  enemy  was  at  or  near 
Hawkinsville  (about  twenty-five  miles  to  the 
north  of  us),  and  the  advice  that  I  had 
better  move  on  at  once  to  the  southward, 
though,  it  was  added,  the  enemy  at  Hawkins 
ville  seemed  to  be  only  intent  upon  appropri- 
ating the  quartermaster's  supplies  supposed 
to  be  there.  I  started  my  party  promptly, 
in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  storm  of  thunder, 
lightning,  and  rain.  As  we  passed  through 
the  village  of  Abbeville,  I  dismounted  and 
had  a  conversation  with  the  President  in  the 
old  house,  where  he  was  lying  on  the  floor 
wrapped  in  a  blanket.  He  urged  me  to  move 
on,  and  said  he  should  overtake  us  during 
the  night,  after  his  horses  had  had  more  rest. 
We  kept  to  the  southward  all  night,  the 
rain  pouring  in  torrents  most  of  the  time,  and 
the  darkness  such  that,  as  we  went  through 
the  woods  where  the  road  was  not  well  marked, 
in  a  light,  sandy  soil,  but  wound  about  to  ac- 
commodate the  great  pines  left  standing,  the 
wagons  were  frequently  stopped  by  fallen  trees 
and  other  obstructions.  In  such  a  situation, 
we  were  obliged  to  wait  until  a  flash  of  light- 
ning enabled  the  drivers  to  see  the  way. 

In  the  midst  of  that  storm  and  darkness 
the  President  overtook  us.  He  was  still  with 
us  when,  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
(not  having  stopped  since  leaving  Abbeville, 
except  for  the  short  time,  about  sunrise,  re- 
quired to  cook  breakfast),  I  halted  my  party 
for  the  night,  immediately  after  crossing  the 
little  creek  just  north  of  Irwinville,  and  went 
into  camp.  My  teams  were  sadly  in  need  of 
rest,  and  having  now  about  fifty  miles  be- 
tween us  and  Hawkinsville,  where  the  enemy 
had  been  reported  to  be,  and  our  information 
being,  as  stated,  that  they  did  not  seem  to  be 
on  the  march  or  likely  to  move  after  us,  we 
apprehended  no  immediate  danger.  That 
country  is  sparsely  inhabited,  and  I  do  not 
recollect  that  we  had  seen  a  human  being 
after  leaving  Abbeville.  Colonel  Johnston 
says  that  he  rode  on  in  advance  as  far  as 
Irwinville,  and  there  found  somebody  from 
whom  he  bought  some  eggs. 

Colonel  Thorburn  had  been,  before  the  war, 
in  the  United  States  navy,  and  was,  I  think, 
a  classmate  of  Colonel  Wood  in  the  Naval 


\ 


142 


THE    CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


Academy  at  Annapolis.  During  the  first  year 
or  two  of  the  war  he  had  served  in  the  army ; 
he  afterward  became  engaged  in  running  the 
blockade,  bringing  supplies  into  the  Confed- 
erate States.  He  says  he  had  a  small  but 
seaworthy  vessel  then  lying  in  Indian  River, 
Florida;  that  his  object  in  joining  the  party 
had  been  to  take  the  President  aboard  that 
vessel  and  convey  him  thence  around  to 
Texas,  in  case  the  attempt  to  get  across  the 
Mississippi  should  for  any  reason  fail  or  seem 
unadvisable;  and  that  Colonel  Wood  and  he 
had  arranged  that  he  should,  at  the  proper 
time,  ride  on  in  advance,  make  all  the  neces- 
sary arrangements  for  the  voyage,  and  return 
to  Madison,  Florida,  to  await  the  President 
there  and  conduct  him  aboard  the  vessel,  if 
necessary.  We  had  all  now  agreed  that,  if 
the  President  was  to  attempt  to  reach  the 
Trans-Mississippi  at  all,  by  whatever  route,  he 
should  move  on  at  once,  independent  of  the 
ladies  and  wagons.  And  when  we  halted  he 
positively  promised  me  (and  Wood  and  Thor- 
burn  tell  me  he  made  the  same  promise  to 
them)  that,  as  soon  as  something  to  eat  could 
be  cooked,  he  would  say  farewell,  for  the  last 
time,  and  ride  on  with  his  own  party,  at  least 
ten  miles  farther  before  stopping  for  the  night, 
consenting  to  leave  me  and  my  party  to  go 
on  our  own  way  as  fast  as  was  possible  with 
the  now  weary  mules. 

After  getting  that  promise  from  the  Presi- 
dent, and  arranging  the  tents  and  wagons  for 
the  night,  and  without  waiting  for  anything 
to  eat  (being  still  the  worse  for  my  dysentery 
and  fever),  I  lay  down  upon  the  ground  and 
fell  into  a  profound  sleep.  Captain  Moody 
afterward  kindly  stretched  a  canvas  as  a  roof 
over  my  head,  and  laid  down  beside  me, 
though  I  knew  nothing  of  that  until  the  next 
day.  I  was  awakened  by  the  coachman, 
James  Jones,  running  to  me  about  day-break 
with  the  announcement  that  the  enemy  was 
at  hand !  I  sprang  to  my  feet,  and  in  an 
instant  a  rattling  fire  of  musketry  commenced 
on  the  north  side  of  the  creek.  Almost  at  the 
same  moment  Colonel  Pritchard  and  his 
regiment  charged  up  the  road  from  the  south 
upon  us.  As  soon  as  one  of  them  came  with- 
in range,  I  covered  him  with  my  revolver  and 
was  about  to  fire,  but  lowered  the  weapon 
when  I  perceived  the  attacking  column  was 
so  strong  as  to  make  resistance  useless,  and 
reflected  that,  by  killing  the  man,  I  should 
certainly  not  be  helping  ourselves,  and  might 
only  provoke  a  general  firing  upon  the  mem- 
bers of  our  party  in  sight.  We  were  taken  by 
surprise,  and  not  one  of  us  exchanged  a  shot 
with  the  enemy.  Colonel  Johnston  tells  me  he 
was  the  first  prisoner  taken.  In  a  moment, 
Colonel   Pritchard  rode  directly  to  me  and, 


pointing  across  the  creek,  said,  "  What  does 
that  mean  ?  Have  you  any  men  with  you  ?  " 
Supposing  the  firing  was  done  by  our  team- 
sters, I  replied,  "  Of  course  we  have — don't 
you  hear  the  firing  ?  "  He  seemed  to  be 
nettled  at  the  reply,  gave  the  order,  "  Charge," 
and  boldly  led  the  way  himself  across  the 
creek,  nearly  every  man  in  his  command  fol- 
lowing. Our  camp  was  thus  left  deserted  for 
a  few  minutes,  except  by  one  mounted  soldier 
near  Mrs.  Davis's  tent  (who  was  afterward 
said  to  have  been  stationed  there  by  Colonel 
Pritchard  in  passing)  and  by  the  few  troopers 
who  stopped  to  plunder  our  wagons.  I  had 
been  sleeping  upon  the  same  side  of  the  road 
with  the  tent  occupied  by  Mrs.  Davis,  and 
was  then  standing  very  near  it.  Looking  there, 
I  saw  her  come  out  and  heard  her  say  some- 
thing to  the  soldier  mentioned ;  perceiving  she 
wanted  him  to  move  off,  I  approached  and  ac- 
tually persuaded  the  fellow  to  ride  away.  As 
the  soldier  moved  into  the  road,  and  I  walked 
beside  his  horse,  the  President  emerged  for 
the  first  time  from  the  tent,  at  the  side  farther 
from  us,  and  walked  away  into  the  woods  to 
the  eastward,  and  at  right  angles  to  the  road. 

Presently,  looking  around  and  observing 
somebody  had  come  out  of  the  tent,  the 
soldier  turned  his  horse's  head  and,  reaching 
the  spot  he  had  first  occupied,  was  again  ap- 
proached by  Mrs.  Davis,  who  engaged  him 
in  conversation.  In  a  minute,  this  trooper  was 
joined  by  one  or  perhaps  two  of  his  comrades, 
who  either  had  lagged  behind  the  column  and 
were  just  coming  up  the  road,  or  had  at  that 
moment  crossed  over  from  the  other  (the 
west)  side,  where  a  few  of  them  had  fallen  to 
plundering,  as  I  have  stated,  instead  of  charg- 
ing over  the  creek.  They  remained  on  horse- 
back and  soon  became  violent  in  their  language 
with  Mrs.  Davis.  The  order  to  "halt"  was  called 
out  by  one  of  them  to  the  President.  It  was 
not  obeyed,  and  was  quickly  repeated  in  a 
loud  voice  several  times.  At  least  one  of 
the  men  then  threatened  to  fire,  and  point- 
ed a  carbine  at  the  President.  Thereupon, 
Mrs.  Davis,  overcome  with  terror,  cried  out 
in  apprehension,  and  the  President  (who 
had  now  walked  sixty  or  eighty  paces  away 
into  the  unobstructed  woods)  turned  around 
and  came  back  rapidly  to  his  wife  near  the  tent. 
At  least  one  of  the  soldiers  continued  his 
violent  language  to  Mrs.  Davis,  and  the 
President  reproached  him  for  such  conduct 
to  her,  when  one  of  them,  seeing  the  face  of 
the  President,as  he  stood  near  and  was  talking, 
said,  "  Mr.  Davis,  surrender  !  I  recognize  you, 
sir."  Pictures  of  the  President  were  so  common 
that  nearly  or  quite  every  man  in  both  armies 
knew  his  face. 

It  was,  as  yet,  scarcely  daylight. 


/ 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  JEFFERSON  DA  VIS. 


T43 


The  President  had  on  a  water-proof  cloak. 
He  had  used  it,  when  riding,  as  a  protection 
against  the  rain  during  the  night  and  morning 
preceding  that  last  halt ;  and  he  had  probably 
been  sleeping  in  that  cloak,  at  the  moment 
when  the  camp  was  attacked. 

While  all  these  things  were  happening,  Miss 
Howell  and  the  children  remained  within  the 
other  tent.  The  gentlemen  of  our  party  had, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Captain  Moody, 
all  slept  on  the  west  side  of  the  road  and  in 
or  near  the  wagons.  They  were,  so  far  as  I 
know,  paying  no  attention  to  what  was  going 
on  at  the  tents.  I  have  since  talked  with 
Johnston,  Wood,  and  Lubbock,  and  with 
others,  about  these  matters  ;  and  I  have  not 
found  there  was  any  one  except  Mrs.  Davis, 
the  single  trooper  at  her  tent,  and  myself, 
who  saw  all  that  occurred  and  heard  all  that 
was  said  at  the  time.  Any  one  else  who  gives 
an  account  of  it  has  had  to  rely  upon  hearsay 
or  his  own  imagination  for  his  story. 

In  a  short  time  after  the  soldier  had  recog- 
nized the  President,  Colonel  Pritchard  and 
his  men  returned  from  across  the  creek — the 
battle  there  ending  with  the  capture  by  one 
party  of  a  man  belonging  to  the  other,  and 
by  the  recognition  which  followed. 

They  told  us  that  the  column,  consisting  of  a 
detachment  of  Wisconsin  cavalry  and  another 
of  Michigan  cavalry,  had  been  dispatched 
from  Macon  in  pursuit  of  us,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Harnden,  of  Wisconsin ;  that 
when  they  reached  Abbeville,  they  heard  a 
party  of  mounted  men,  with  wagons,  had 
crossed  the  river  near  there,  the  night  before; 
that  they  immediately  suspected  the  identity 
of  the  party,  and  decided  to  follow  it ;  but 
that,  to  make  sure  of  catching  us  if  we  had 
not  already  crossed  the  river,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Pritchard  had  been  posted  at  the 
ferry  with  orders  to  remain  there  and  capture 
anybody  attempting  to  pass;  that  Colonel 
Harnden,  with  his  Wisconsin  men,  marched 
down  the  direct  road  we  had  ourselves  taken, 
and,  coming  upon  us  in  the  night,  had  halted 
on  the  north  side  of  the  creek  to  wait  for 
daylight  before  making  the  attack,  lest  some 
might  escape  in  the  darkness ;  that  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Pritchard  had  satisfied  himself, 
by  further  conversation  with  the  ferry-man, 
that  it  was  indeed  Mr.  Davis  who  had  crossed 
there,  and,  deciding  to  be  in,  if  possible,  at 
the  capture,  had  marched  as  rapidly  as  he 
could  along  the  road  nearer  the  river,  to  the 
east  of  and  for  most  of  the  distance  nearly- 
parallel  with  the  route  taken  by  Colonel 
Harnden ;  that  he  reached  the  cross-roads 
(Irvvinville)  in  the  night,  ascertained  nobody 
had  passed  there  for  several  days,  turned 
north,  and  found  us  only  a  mile  and  a  half  up 


the  road ;  that,  to  intercept  any  attempt  at 
escape,  he  had  dismounted  some  of  his  men, 
and  sent  them  to  cross  the  creek  to  the  west- 
ward of  us  and  to  post  themselves  in  the  road 
north  of  our  camp ;  that,  as  these  dismounted 
men  crossed  the  creek  and  approached  the 
road,  they  came  upon  the  Wisconsin  troopers, 
and  not  being  able,  in  the  insufficient  light, 
to  distinguish  their  uniforms,  and  supposing 
them  to  be  our  escort,  opened  a  brisk  fire 
which  was  immediately  returned;  and  that, 
on  that  signal,  Colonel  Pritchard  and  his 
column  charged  up  the  road  into  our  camp, 
and  thence  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  They 
said  that,  in  the  rencontre,  a  man  and,  I  think, 
a  horse  or  two  were  killed,  and  that  an  officer 
and  perhaps  one  or  two  men  were  wounded. 

During  the  confusion  of  the  next  few  min- 
utes, Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood  escaped, 
first  inducing  the  soldier  who  halted  him  to 
go  aside  into  the  bushes  on  the  bank  of  the 
creek,  and  there  bribing  the  fellow  with  some 
gold  to  let  him  get  away  altogether.  As 
Wood  was  an  officer  of  the  navy,  as  well  as 
an  officer  of  the  army,  had  commanded 
cruisers  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  had  capt- 
ured and  sunk  a  number  of  New  York  and 
New  England  vessels,  and  was  generally 
spoken  of  in  the  Northern  newspapers  as  a 
"  pirate,"  he  not  unnaturally  apprehended 
that,  if  he  remained  in  the  enemy's  hands,  he 
would  be  treated  with  special  severity. 

He  made  his  way  to  Florida,  and  there  met 
General  Breckinridge,  with  whom  (and  per- 
haps one  or  two  others)  he  sailed  down  the 
east  coast  of  the  State  in  a  small  open  boat, 
and  escaped  to  Cuba.  When  in  London,  in 
September,  1866,  I  dined  with  Breckinridge, 
and  had  from  him  the  story  of  their  advent- 
ures. He  said  they  kept  close  alongshore,  and, 
frequently  landing,  subsisted  on  turtles'  eggs 
found  in  the  sand.  When  nearing  the  south- 
erly end  of  the  coast,  they  one  day  perceived 
a  boat  coming  to  meet  them  and  were  at  first 
afraid  of  capture;  but  presently,  observing 
that  the  other  boat  was  so  changing  its  course 
as  to  avoid  them,  they  shrewdly  suspected  it 
to  contain  deserters  or  escaped  convicts  from 
the  Dry  Tortugas,  or  some  such  people,  who 
were  probably  themselves  apprehensive  of 
trouble  if  caught.  Wood  therefore  gave 
chase  immediately,  and,  having  the  swifter 
boat,  soon  overhauled  the  other  one.  The 
unsatisfactory  account  the  men  aboard  gave 
of  themselves  seemed  to  confirm  the  suspicion 
with  regard  to  their  character.  The  new  boat 
was  a  better  sea-craft  than  the  one  our  voya- 
gers had,  though  not  so  fast  a  sailer.  They 
were  afraid  theirs  would  not  take  them  across 
the  Gulf  to  Cuba,  and  so  determined  to  appro- 
priate  the   other.     Turning   pirates   for   the 


144 


THE    CAPTURE    OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


occasion,  they  showed  their  side-arms,  put  on 
a  bold  air,  and  threatened  the  rascals  with  all 
manner  of  dreadful  things;  but  finally  relented 
so  far  as  to  offer  to  let  them  off  with  an  ex- 
change of  boats  !  The  victims  were  delighted 
with  this  clemency,  and  gladly  went  through 
what  President  Lincoln  called  the  dangerous 
process  of  "  swapping  horses  while  crossing  a 
stream."  Each  party  went  on  its  way  rejoicing, 
and  our  friends  finally,  as  I  have  said,  reached 
the  coast  of  Cuba,  though  almost  famished. 
Indeed,  Breckinridge  said  they  were  kept 
alive  at  all  only  by  a  loaf  or  two  of  bread 
kindly  given  them  by  a  Yankee  skipper  as 
they  sailed  under  the  stern  of  his  vessel  at 
day-break  of  the  last  day  of  their  voyage. 

All  of  the  other  members  of  the  President's 
party,  except  Colonel  Thorburn,  and  all  those 
of  my  own  party,  remained  as  prisoners — 
unless,  indeed,  one  or  two  of  the  teamsters 
escaped,  as  to  which  I  do  not  recollect. 

I  had  been  astonished  to  discover  the 
President  still  in  camp  when  the  attack  was 
made.  What  I  learned  afterward  explained 
the  mystery.  Wood  and  Thorburn  tell  me 
that,  after  the  President  had  eaten  supper 
with  his  wife,  he  told  them  he  should  ride  on 
when  Mrs.  Davis  was  ready  to  go  to  sleep ; 
but  that,  when  bed-time  came,  he  finally  said 
he  would  ride  on  in  the  morning —  and  so 
spent  the  night  in  the  tent.  He  seemed  to  be 
entirely  unable  to  apprehend  the  danger  of 
capture.  Everybody  was  disturbed  at  this 
change  of  his  plan  to  ride  ten  miles  farther, 
but  he  could  not  be  got  to  move. 

Colonel  Thorburn  decided  to  start  during 
the  night,  to  accomplish  as  soon  as  possible 
his  share  of  the  arrangement  for  the  escape 
of  the  party  from  the  sea-coast;  and,  with 
his  negro  boy,  he  set  out  alone  before  day- 
break. He  tells  me  that,  at  Irwinville,  they 
ran  into  the  enemy  in  the  darkness,  and  were 
fired  upon ;  and  that  the  negro  leveled  him- 
self on  his  horse's  back,  and  galloped  away 
like  a  good  fellow  into  the  woods  to  the  east. 
Thorburn  says  he  turned  in  the  saddle  for  a 
moment,  shot  the  foremost  of  the  pursuers,  saw 
him  tumble  from  his  horse,  and  then  kept  on 
after  the  negro.  They  were  chased  into  the 
woods,  but  their  horses  were  fresher  than  those 
of  the  enemy  and  easily  distanced  pursuit. 
Thorburn  says  he  went  on  to  Florida,  found 
his  friend  Captain  Coxsetter  at  Lake  City, 
ascertained  that  the  vessel  was,  as  expected,  in 
the  Indian  River  and  in  good  condition  for  the 
voyage  to  Texas,  arranged  with  the  captain 
to  get  her  ready  for  sailing,  and  then  returned 
to  Madison  for  the  rendezvous.  There,  he 
says,  he  learned  of  Mr.  Davis's  capture,  and, 
having  no  further  use  for  the  vessel,  sent  back 
orders  to  destroy  her. 


The  business  of  plundering  commenced 
immediately  after  the  capture ;  and  we  were 
soon  left  with  only  what  we  had  on  and 
what  we  had  in  our  pockets.  Several  of  us 
rejoiced  in  some  gold ;  mine  was  only  the  one 
hundred  and  ten  dollars  I  have  mentioned, 
but  Colonel  Lubbock  and  Colonel  Johnston 
had  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars  each.  Lub- 
bock held  on  to  nearly  or  quite  all  of  his. 
But  Johnston  had  found  the  coins  an  uncomfort- 
able burden  when  carried  otherwise,  and  had 
been  riding  with  them  in  his  holsters.  There 
his  precious  gold  was  found,  and  thence  it 
was  eagerly  taken,  by  one  or  more  of  our  cap- 
tors. His  horse  and  his  saddle,  with  the 
trappings  and  pistols,  were  those  his  father, 
General  Albert  Sydney  Johnston,  had  used 
at  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  and  were  greatly 
prized.  They  and  all  our  horses  were 
promptly  appropriated  by  the  officers  of  Col. 
Pritchard's  command ;  the  colonel  himself 
claimed  and  took  the  lion's  share,  includ- 
ing the  two  carriage-horses,  which,  as  he  was 
told  at  the  time,  were  the  property  of  Mrs. 
Davis,  having  been  bought  and  presented 
to  her  by  the  gentlemen  in  Richmond  upon 
the  occasion  already  mentioned.  Colonel 
Pritchard  also  asserted  a  claim  to  the  horse  I 
had  myself  ridden,  which  had  stood  the  march 
admirably  and  was  fresher  and  in  better  con- 
dition than  the  other  animals.  The  colonel's 
claim  to  him,  however,  was  disputed  by  the 
adjutant,  who  insisted  on  the  right  of  first 
appropriation,  and  there  was  a  quarrel  be- 
tween those  officers  on  the  spot. 

While  it  was  going  on,  I  emptied  the  con- 
tents of  my  haversack  into  a  fire  where 
some  of  the  enemy  were  cooking  breakfast, 
and  there  saw  the  papers  burn.  They  were 
chiefly  love-letters,  with  a  photograph  of  my 
sweetheart, —  though  with  them  chanced  to 
be  a  few  telegrams  and  perhaps  some  letters 
relating  to  public  affairs,  of  no  special  interest. 

After  we  had  had  breakfast,  it  was  arranged 
that  each  of  the  prisoners  should  ride  his 
own  horse  to  Macon,  the  captors  kindly 
consenting  to  waive  right  of  possession  mean- 
time; and  that  arrangement  was  carried  out, 
except  that  Mr.  Davis  traveled  in  one  of  the 
ambulances. 

We  marched  in  a  column  of  twos,  and  Major 
Maurin  and  I  rode  together.  He  was  very 
taciturn ;  but  when,  on  the  second  or  third 
day,  we  came  upon  a  cavalry  camp  where  a 
brass-band,  in  a  large  wagon  drawn  by  hand- 
some horses,  was  stationed  by  the  road-side, 
and  suddenly  struck  up  "  Yankee  Doodle  " 
as  the  ambulance  containing  Mr.  Davis  came 
abreast  of  it,  the  silent  old  Creole  was  moved 
to  speech.  The  startling  burst  of  music  set 
our  horses  to  prancing.  When  Major  Maurin 


had  composed  his  steed,  he  turned  to  me 
with  a  broad  smile  and  revenged  himself 
with:  "I  remember  the  last  time  I  heard  that 
tune ;  it  was  at  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg, 
when  a  brass-band  came  across  the  pontoon 
bridge  with  the  column  and  occupied  a  house 
within  range  of  my  guns,  where  they  began 
'  Yankee  Doodle.'  I  myself  sighted  a  field- 
piece  at  the  house,  missed  it  with  the  first 
shot,  but  next  time  hit  it  straight.  In  all  your 
life  you  never  heard  '  Yankee  Doodle '  stop 
so  short  as  it  did  then ! " 

It  was  at  that  cavalry  camp  we  first  heard 
of  the  proclamation  offering  a  reward  of 
$100,000  for  the  capture  of  Mr.  Davis,  upon 
the  charge,  invented  by  Stanton  and  Holt, 
of  participation  in  the  plot  to  murder  Mr. 
Lincoln.  Colonel  Pritchard  had  himself 
just  received  it,  and  considerately  handed  a 
printed  copy  of  the  proclamation  to  Mr. 
Davis,  who  read  it  with  a  composure  unruf- 
fled by  any  feeling  other  than  scorn.  The 
money  was,  several  years  later,  paid  to  the 
captors.  Stanton  and  Holt,  lawyers  both, 
very  well  knew  that  Mr.  Davis  could  never 
be  convicted  upon  an  indictment  for  treason, 
but  were  determined  to  hang  him  anyhow, 
and  were  in  search  of  a  pretext  for  doing  so. 

The  march  to  Macon  took  four  days.  As 
we  rode  up  to  the  head-quarters  of  General 
Wilson  there,  an  orderly  (acting,  as  he  said, 
under  directions  of  the  adjutant)  seized  my 
rein  before  I  had  dismounted,  and  led  off  my 
horse  the  moment  I  was  out  of  the  saddle. 
When,  that  afternoon,  we  were  sent  to  the 
station  to  take  the  railway  train  arranged  to 
convey  the  prisoners  to  Augusta,  on  our  way 
to  Fortress  Monroe,  the  horses  of  all  or  most 
of  the  officers  of  our  party  were  standing  in 
front  of  the  hotel,  and  the  several  ex-owners 
rode  them  to  the  station.  My  horse  was  not 
there,  and  I  had  to  go  to  the  station  afoot. 

Several  years  afterward,  on  the  grand  stand 
at    the   Jerome    Park   race-course,    in    New 

York,  I  met  Colonel  ,  from  whom,  in 

Danville,  Virginia,  I  had  got  the  horse  under 
the  circumstances  narrated.  He  told  me  he 
was  in  that  part  of  Georgia  shortly  after 
our  capture,  and  said  the  quarrel  between 
Colonel    Pritchard   and   his    adjutant,  as   to 


who  should  have  my  horse,  waxed  so  hot  at 
Macon  that  the  adjutant,  fearing  he  would 
not  be  able  to  keep  the  horse  himself,  and 
determined  Colonel  Pritchard  should  not 
have  him,  ended  the  dispute  by  drawing  his 
revolver  and  shooting  the  gallant  steed  dead. 
At  General  Wilson's  head-quarters  in  Ma- 
con, I  met  General  Croxton,  of  Kentucky, 
one  of  Wilson's  brigadiers,  who  had  been 
two  classes  ahead  of  me  at  Yale  College. 
He  received  me  with  expressions  of  great 
friendship ;  said  he  should  have  a  special 
outlook  for  my  comfort  while  a  prisoner ;  and 
told  me  that  it  was  at  his  suggestion  that 
Harnden  and  Pritchard  had  been  dispatched 
to  intercept  Mr.  Davis  at  the  crossing  of  the 
Ocmulgee  River  at  Abbeville — having  heard 
from  some  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  who 
had  been  disbanded  at  Washington,  Georgia, 
each  with  a  few  dollars  in  silver  in  his  pocket, 
that  the  President  had  ridden  south  from 
that  place. 

Had  Mr.  Davis  continued  his  journey, 
without  reference  to  us,  after  crossing  the 
Ocmulgee  River,  or  had  he  ridden  on  after 
getting  supper  with  our  party  the  night  we 
halted  for  the  last  time ;  had  he  gone  but 
five  miles  beyond  Irwinville,  passing  through 
that  village  at  night,  and  so  avoiding  observa- 
tion, there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that 
he  and  his  party  would  have  escaped 
either  across  the  Mississippi  or  through 
Florida  to  the  sea-coast,  as  Mr.  Benjamin 
escaped,  as  General  Breckinridge  escaped, 
and  as  others  did.  It  was  the  apprehension 
he  felt  for  the  safety  of  his  wife  and 
children  which  brought  about  his  capture. 
And,  looking  back  now,  it  must  be  thought 
by  everybody  to  have  been  best  that  he  did 
not  then  escape  from  the  country. 

To  have  been  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
not  to  have  been  brought  to  trial  upon  any 
of  the  charges  against  him,  is  sufficient  refu- 
tation of  them  all.  It  indicates  that  the  people 
in  Washington  knewthe  accusations  could  not 
be  sustained.      **»#*#*#* 

Burton  N.  Harrison. 


OPEN  LETTERS.  477 

Jefferson  Davis  and  General  Holt. 

In  The  Century  for  November  is  an  article,  "  The 
Capture  of  Jefferson  Davis,"  by  Mr.  Burton  N.  Har- 
rison. The  following  phrases  and  sentences  are  to 
be  found  -in  this  article :  In  a  note  by  the  author,  on 
page  136  of  the  magazine  :  "  *  *  *  The  scheme 
,  of  Stanton  and  Holt  to  fasten  upon  Mr.  Davis  charges 
of  a  guilty  foreknowledge  of,  if  not  participation  in, 
the  murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln."  And  in  the  text,  on 
page  145:  "Stanton  and  Holt,  lawyers  both,  very 
well  knew  that  Mr.  Davis  could  never  be  convicted 
on  an  indictment  for  treason,  but  were  determined 
to  hang  him  anyhow,  and  were  in  search  of  a  pre- 
text for  doing  so.  *  *  *  To  have  been  a  pris- 
oner in  the  hands  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  and  not  to  have  been  brought  to  trial  upon  any 
of  the  charges  against  him,  is  sufficient  refutation  of 
them  all.  It  indicates  that  the  people  in  Washington 
knew  the  accusations  could  not  be  sustained." 

Now,  I  can  safely  leave  the  defense  of  Secretary 
Stanton  to  abler  pens  than  mine.  But  I  hold — con- 
trary, I  know,  to  the  usual  opinion  —  that  the  dead, 
whose  time  of  action  is  past,  stand  less  in  need  of 
vindication  than  the  living.  Therefore,  I  wish  to 
speak  as  to  the  charges  made  by  Mr.  Harrison 
against  General  Holt;  yet  not  with  my  own  mouth; 
for  it  strikes  me  that  the  fitting  answer  to  them  is 
found  in  General  Holt's  own  statement  concerning 
another  matter,  published  within  the  month,  but  be- 
fore Mr.  Harrison's  paper  was  given  to  the  public. 

General  Holt,  in  this  statement  (a  reply,  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  published  in  the  "Philadelphia  Press,"  under 
the  date  of  October  8th,  to  an  attack  upon  him  by  the 
ex-conspirator,  Mr.  Jacob  Thompson),  speaks  as  fol- 
lows concerning  the  actions  of  a  certain  San  ford  Con- 
over,  first  known  to  the  General  and  the  public  as  a 
witness  in  the  trial  of  the  assassins  of  President  Lin- 
coln (though  Conover's  testimony  concerned  not 
those  conspirators  executed  for  that  crime,  but  others 
who  were  never  brought  to  trial) : 

"  In  July,  after  the  trial,  Conover  addressed  a 
written  communication  to  me  from  New  York,  of 
which  the  following  is  the  opening  paragraph: 

"  'New- York,  July  26,  1865. 
"'Brig. -Gen.  Holt: 

"'Dear  Sir:  Believing  that  I  can  procure  witnesses 
and  documentary  evidence  sufficient  to  convict  Jeff. 
Davis  and  C.  C.  Clay  of  complicity  in  the  assassination 
of  the  President,  and  that  I  can  also  find  and  secure 
John  H.  Surratt,  I  beg  leave  to  tender  the  Government, 
through  you,  my  services  for  these  purposes.   *  *  * ' 

"  On  the  second  of  August  following,"  General 
Holt  continues,  "another  letter  to  the  same  effect, 
but  more  urgent,  was  received  from  him  [Con- 
over],  and,  after  a  conference  with  the  Secretary 
of  War,  with  his  full  approval  the  proposal  was 
accepted,  and  Conover  entered  on  the  fulfillment  of 
his  engagement.  Some  six  or  seven  months  were 
occupied  in  this,  and  after  all  the  witnesses  produced 
by  him  —  none  of  whom  were  known  to  me — had 
been  examined,  and  their  depositions  filed  in  the  Bureau 
of  Military  Justice,  Conover,  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Secretary  of  War,  was  allowed  a  compensation, 
which,  with  what  he  had  previously  received,  was 
deemed  just,  and  no  more,  for  his  services, —  such 
sums  as  were  required  for  the  attendance  of  the  wit- 
M    nesses  themselves  having  been  before  paid  out  from 


1 


478 


OPEN  LETTERS. 


time  to  time.  Conover  himself  gave  no  deposition. 
In  this  there  was  no  departure  from  the  course 
habitually  pursued  by  all  the  departments  of  the 
Government.  *  *  *  At  this  time,  nothing  had 
occurred  to  excite  the  slightest  suspicion  of  Conover's 
integrity  in  all  that  he  had  done,  or  in  the  credibility 
of  his  witnesses.  Some  time  afterward,  two  of  these 
witnesses,  conscience-stricken,  came  and  confessed 
that  they  had  sworn  falsely,  having  been  suborned  to 
do  so  by  Conover.  Investigation  satisfied  me  that 
they  were  sincere  in  their  avowals,  and  without  delay 
appropriate  action  was  taken.  A  prosecution  was  set 
on  foot  against  Conover,  and  he  was  convicted  and 
sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  perjury  and  subornation 
of  perjury,  and  on  the  margin  of  all  the  reports  made 
by  me  on  the  depositions  of  the  witnesses  he  had  pro- 
duced, an  indorsement  was  made,  stating  that  the 
depositions  were  withdrawn  and  had  been  discredited. 
*  *  *  Fortunately,  this  most  guilty  deception  was 
discovered  so  soon  that  neither  the  reputation  nor  the 
sensibilities  of  anybody  had  suffered  by  the  temporary 
credit  given  to  it." 

Had  General  Holt  been  maliciously  determined  to 
have  the  life  of  any  one,  would  he  have  acted  thus  ? 
Of  course  not.  He  showed  himself  in  this  affair, 
as  always,  a  most  honorable,  high-minded,  and  just 
man. 

The  Secessionists  will  never  forgive  him,  because, 
being  a  "  Border  man," — a  Kentuckian  by  birth, — he 
chose  rather  to  remain  true  to  the  Union  than  to 
join  them.  But  no  loyal  person  will  make  this  a 
ground  of  complaint  against  him. 


Loyalist. 


The  Influence   of  Christ.* 


Who,  after  the  Evangelists,  will  venture  to  write 
the  Life  of  Jesus?  This  deprecatory  question  of  Les- 
sing  has  not  prevented,  during  the  last  three  or  four 
decades,  the  composition  of  numerous  biographies  of 
him  whose  career  is  depicted  inimitably  by  the  Four 
Evangelists.  Germany  has  been  most  prolific  of  these 
works.  France  has  produced  one  excellent  book  of 
this  class,  "The  Life  of  Jesus,"  by  Pressense,  and 
another  famous  writing,  of  a  critical  and  distinctive 
cast,  the  "Vie  de  Jesus  "  of  M.  Renan.  Even  Scot- 
land, where  the  abstract  discussions  of  theology  have 
still  the  strongest  fascination,  has  made  its  contribu- 
tions to  this  species  of  biographic  writing.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  the  minds  of  men  are  drawn  away  from 
the  problems  of  dogmatic  theology,  such  as  predes- 
tination and  free  will,  and  fastened  on  the  wonderful 
personality  of  the  Founder.  The  attention  is  drawn 
away  from  the  circumference  to  the  center.  It  is  re- 
markable that  this  vivid  interest  in  the  question, 
"  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  " —  this  concentration  of 
thought  on  the  Person  who  gives  to  Christianity  its 
being, —  is  simultaneous  with  a  widespread  tendency, 
rife  in  all  the  empirical  schools,  to  make  little  of  per- 
sonality and  personal  force,  and  to  make  everything 
of  general  causes  and  impersonal  forces  as  determining 
the  current  of  history.    The  one-sided  character  of  this 

*  Gesta  Christi ;  or,  A  History  of  Human  Progress  under  Chris- 
tianity.   By  Charles  Loring  Brace.    New  York:  A.C.Armstrong. 


last  tendency,  in  its  undervaluing  of  the  significance 
of  persons,  and  of  the  mysterious  personal  agency 
which  is  not  to  be  resolved  into  anything  merely  phys- 
ical or  distinct  from  itself,  is  specially  manifest  when 
the  attempt  is  made  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  Here  the  great  originating  cause  is  a 
Person.  Nothing  in  his  environment  suffices  to  ex- 
plain him.  Nothing  in  his  antecedents  or  circum- 
stances accounts  for  the  appearance,  then  and  there, 
of  an  individual  so  transcendently  gifted,  and  predes- 
tined to  exert  so  transforming  an  influence  on  human 
society. 

Akin  to  the  tendency  which  leads  men  to  dwell  on 
the  history  of  Jesus,  and  to  gather  up  all  that  can  be 
ascertained  respecting  him,  is  the  disposition  to  trace 
the  stream  of  consequences  which  have  flowed  from 
his  life,  teaching,  and  death.  In  the  mist  of  critical 
conjecture  which  is  thrown  over  certain  portions  of 
the  EvangeUcal  narratives,  and  the  doubts  which  af- 
flict many  minds,  it  is  a  relief  to  contemplate  the  veri- 
fiable results  of  the  work  of  Jesus  among  men.  Not  a 
few  derive  their  profoundest  impressions  of  his  inef- 
fable power  and  excellence  from  a  close  survey  of  the 
history  of  Christendom.  The  growth  of  the  grain  of 
mustard-seed,  the  spread  of  the  leaven,  have  a  reality 
and  impressiveness  which  the  most  skeptical  minds 
are  capable  of  recognizing.  It  is  one  of  the  best  serv- 
ices which  a  work  like  the  "  Gesta  Christi  "  of  Mr. 
Brace  renders  that  it  gives  the  reader  a  fresh  idea  of 
the  energy,  the  beneficent  energy,  that  resides  in  the 
religion  of  Christ,  and  emanates  from  him,  account 
for  it  as  one  may.  Mr.  Brace's  work  confines  itself  to 
the  various  forms  of  philanthropy  in  which  the  influ- 
ence of  Christ  is  directly  traceable.  He  dwells  on  the 
mitigation  of  the  excessive  paternal  authority  which 
prevailed  in  the  ancient  world ;  the  elevation  of  woman 
under  the  benign  and  pure  teaching  of  the  Gospel ;  the 
sanctity  thrown  around  marriage  and  the  domestic 
hearthstone;  the  melting  of  the  chains  of  the  bond- 
man ;  the  abolition  of  cruel  and  brutal  sports,  like  the 
contests  of  the  arena;  the  increased  tenderness  for 
children,  compared  with  the  practice  and  spirit  of  an- 
tiquity ;  the  abandonment  of  the  private  wars  which 
prevailed  in  the  feudal  ages ;  the  discarding  of  torture 
and  the  reform  of  criminal  jurisprudence ;  the  substi- 
tution of  arbitration  for  war,  and  the  astonishing  mit^ 
igation  of  the  horrors  of  war  which  the  spirit  of  human-, 
ity  in  modern  times  has  introduced,  etc.  The  effect  of 
such  a  discussion  depends,  of  course,  on  the  interest 
that  belongs  to  the  illustrative  facts.  One  sees  from 
such  a  broad  survey  that  there  has  been  steadily 
operating  a  subtle  and  powerful  influence  which,  when 
followed  back,  leads  to  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  truth 
of  the  sacredness  of  humanity,  of  the  dignity  and  worth 
of  every  human  soul,  be  its  outward  condition  never 
so  humble,  obtained  then  a  permanent  lodgment  in 
the  human  heart.  There  it  has  been  living  and  acting  ) 
with  an  increasing  efficiency.  Thus  human  societ;  I 
becomes  more  and  more  Christian.  Christ  is  seen,  no  i 
in  visible  form,  but  in  his  spirit,  incorporated  in 
men's  thoughts  and  lives. 

George  P.  Fisher. 


